[Novalug] [Dclug] [FOSE] Starting the discussion

Rahul Murmuria rahul@murmuria.in
Sat Oct 4 21:20:46 EDT 2008


Hi Jay,

On Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 9:05 PM, Jay Hart <jhart@kevla.org> wrote:
>> Hello Everyone!
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 7:46 PM, Rich Goodwin <rich.goodwin@cox.net> wrote:
>>> Serge,
>>>
>> [snip]
>>> If that is the case (and I will presume it to be so), then please,
>>> provide some good words which artilucate this.
>> [snip]
>>>  What should the message be from the booth?
>>
>>
>> How about this - " Now you can own the software you acquire!  (and
>> save lot of money doing it!) "
>
> Sorry, this is flat-out wrong.  You don't own software you acquire, you have
> been granted certain "rights" regarding it use.

I understand that. It depends on how you look at it. Its like when you
buy a car, you own it completely. You can do whatever you want with
its components depending upon your needs. You can go to any local
mechanic and ask him to fix it.
This does not mean you have any claim over the car's design. The car
manufacturers still have full rights for design ownership. You
however, own your copy in full.

This is different from the EULA licenses being used by closed source
software which says, the software developer company "owns" everything
about that software and you have no right to copy, distribute, modify,
customize or fix anything pertaining to the software.

So I still strongly think, "Do you own the software you use?"  or
"Now you can own your software!"  actually portrays the right image
about FOSS. However, that is just my way of putting words to our
thoughts.

>
> Jay
>

-- 
Rahul Murmuria



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