EE Times: Content protection debate reaching do or die. Many of the stakeholders in the digital-copyright debate are beginning to wonder how long the discussion will drag on and when the content and technology industries will agree to launch standards that satisfy all of the sides. [Tomalak's Realm]

So, what if Congress steps in and forces the adoption of a techology for protecting copyrights?  Congress can't force the content owners to release their content in digital form.  It seems like the content owners can just say "no".  So what's the point of Congress trying to do anything?

8:45:22 AM   

What are the most significant open source products?  I'm going to try to list them, not necessarily in any particular order.

1. Emacs
2. GCC
3. Linux
4. Apache
5. Mozilla
6. Sendmail
7. Samba
8. Perl
9. XFree86

7:34:43 AM   

Is there really such thing as an "open source movement"?  Some people use that term.  But I think it's baloney.  There is no "movement".  There is just "open source".

What are people thinking when they refer to the "open source movement"?  Here's what I think.  Those who refer to an "open source movement" mean a belief system that says software should be free.  If you are a user, and you buy into the open source movement -- that is, you adopt the open source belief system --, then you ought to be very happy, because you aren't going to pay for software.  If you are a developer and you buy into the open source movement, then you are going to start giving away all the source code to the software you write.  If you are a software company and you buy into the open source movement, then you are going to offer all your software for free and you are going to give away the source code for free.  Since this is a "movement", it's catching on: developers are giving away the source code they write and companies increasingly are giving away their software products.  Right?

It's all baloney.  Open source is nothing more than a bunch of software developers who like to write code as a creative outlet and who share the code they write with others.

7:25:17 AM