On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 03:05:53PM +0100, Yves Degoyon wrote:
It would be good to find out what the legal status of code that is illegally licensed. We've had this issue before with the not-for-military-use clause that Yves added to his software, rendering it technically illegal. A lawyer could tell us if it's a) in legal limbo land where nobody is legally allowed to use it b) defaults to public domain c) something else weird.
in fact, i'm glad of considering my software 'illegal' when you see what the 'law' ( mainly american ) and the OMC are able to achieve with tricks.
Yep, I understand and completely sympathise with this viewpoint. In my country (not the USA) there are some really really stupid and petty laws, and I know that some people have to break them on a weekly or daily basis just to live normally.
Just the other day the police department started a new television campaign called "Eyes on the street" who's logo is a giant pixellated eye. The advert says that there are people all around us, watching all the time to see if anything is wrong. They also have advertisements that have a cop pointing his finger at the camera saying "Watch out. If you do something wrong we will get you." At my university I saw one of these cars with a giant pixellated eye on the side, and I couldn't help laughing out loud.
I don't even know where to start protesting this; I can't even make a joke about it because it's so self parodying and ridiculous. Seems like everyone just writes a complaint in their blog instead of actually doing something.
Oh well. Time to move to Europe or Asia I guess.
Best,
Chris.
chris@mccormick.cx http://mccormick.cx