From the childishly silly canards dept: Open Source == Piracy

Apparently, the self-described International Intellectual Property Alliance, which includes perennial bad actors such as the  MPAA and the RIAA as member is now pushing a rules change in the US export/import controls that would brand Open Source Software as pirated goods and that in fact Open Source software is a “threat” to the very existence of capitalism.

The Guardian is reporting today that the IIPA are pushing for a “section 301″ rules change to US law which would put goods from Brazil, Indonesia, and India (to name a few) on trade watch lists because they make or sell product using Open Source software and because these governments have pushed the use of Open Source systems/software  for use inside their own governments.  It would effectively criminalize the use and importation of Open Source software.  Think about that for a moment, will you?
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The idiocy here cannot be over stated.  Open Source Software packages, literally RUN the digital economy the world (and the US in particular) now depends  upon…
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Let’s look at the short list of what the IIPA is attacking, shall we?
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Linux and/or BSD Unix is the heart of (for starters…)

• All US banking operations
• All US trading, settlement and back-office systems
• Most wireless routers
• All set-top cable boxes
• 90% of DVD/BluRay Players
• In-flight entertainment systems
• MP3 players
• Hand-held gaming systems
• All smart-phones (including the iPhone and Google Android as well as the Palm Pre and new Motorola phones)
• 97% of the top-500 super computers in the world
• All large e-comerce platforms created and used by everyone from Amazon to to WalMart
• All of Google
• All of Yahoo
• All of Facebook
• All of MySpace
• Most all software used in animation/rendering farms to make Hollywood blockbusters

Software written by or donated to the Apache Software foundation:

• Secures 98% of all internet e-commerce transactions (OpenSSL/TLS)
• Runs 80%+ of all web servers (Apache)
• Accounts for over 50% of all non-Sun supplied Java utility packages used to create the majority of enterprise software in the US and around the world

Other Open Source software such as Ruby on Rails, Python, Groovy, Scala, PHP and Erlang and all of the tools created using them power  almost all of the powerful new software, applications and web services that are re-shaping every aspect of online and offline life, culture and business: from Twitter  and BaseCamp, to Facebook, and MySpace… the list goes on for so long it would takes weeks to recount all of the applications that are changing our world and powering our future that are built with or are themselves Open Source software.
All of this built on the extraordinary creativity and generosity of programmers and corporations  around the world, including companies like IBM and Sun (and even Microsoft!) who have opened up their impressive patent portfolios to ensure that Open Source packages can remain open and can continue to be used to drive innovation for everyone.
And all of this is somehow “a threat the capitalism?” Seriously?  A pretty large bunch of capitalist companies seem to be making a LOT of money thanks to all that commie Open Source software.
And yet.. and yet the IIPA  slyly and disingenuously attempts to brand Open Source software and the countries and companies that use it, and the people/corporations that create  it as some kind of pirates intent on destroying the value of software.  If they want to see “pirates,” the IIPA needs only to look in the mirror…
Maybe the IIPA needs to get with the program and join the rest of us in the 21st century and create some value.  Go do something of value, present something other than the face of a bunch of scared, old businesses/businessmen too tired and spent to represent anything other than old broken business models and a bunch of  opportunistic fear-mongering thieves who would slit the throat of the future in a feeble attempt to undo history and line their own pockets.

Source:
http://www.zeitgeist.com/