Some of use distribute GPL software. I’ve actually distributed the odd change or patch myself (and sent up the RTL8150 patch to the kernel maintainers). Most of this stuff is offered source-code available on the internet. The license is very much intact.
Which is why it’s so appauling to see the BSA director making statments like the below. I think we can see that they’ve got less to do with software and business than they do with software and restrictive licensing.
Now I’m not going to give you some screed on how “all software needs to be free”. If you want that, go check with RMS. He’s all over that pony.
But the insinuation that making the iTunes protocol open would end software as we know it… this guy needs a proverbial boot to the head. Soon. Maybe it’ll jar some “sense” free.
France battles Apple over its iTunes software - Jul. 17, 2006
“I nearly fell off my chair,” says Mingorance, director of public policy in Europe for the Business Software Alliance, whose members include Microsoft, Intel, and Symantec. “France is a country that is so respectful of authors. Giving software free on the Internet? That would be the end of copyright protection.”
