fair use review in Australia

As seen on Slashdot, the Australian Attorney-General's department is conducting a public review into Fair-Use laws. You can bet that the recording and movie industry lobbies will be well represented, but there is no reason why free software developers shouldn't be.

If you are interested in or involved with free software development, please take some time to read and respond to their issues paper. I suggest that you ask for fair use rights for research (reverse engineering for compatibility) and reasonable personal use (time and format shifting) be enshrined in legislation and not left to the courts to decide.

raph: I share many of your feelings on the lack of appreciation that free software developers receive for their efforts. Compared to the thanks that I get in my day job, doing far less complicated things for money, unpaid work on free software seems to yield steady stream of demands and complaints.

I don't think that most of these people would behave this way if you were meeting them face to face - it is just so easy to make glib insults or armchair criticisms when you don't have to look your object in the eyes (I'm sure I have been guilty of this too, from time to time). It is doubly frustrating because one can't fight back, as this just escalates the situation (cf. old adages about wrestling pigs). Please don't become jaded - to do so would allow your behaviour to be determined by the lowest common denominator.

raph: I respectfully disagree - new software developed with government funds *should* be released as public domain, just so long as there is no prohibition of government funds being used to improve existing GPL software.

This would allow everyone equal access, including proprietary developers and all flavors of free developers. If people want to make GPL'd derivatives, they are free to relicense it. Likewise if a commercial developer or one of the BSD projects wants to incorporate code, they can do so too.

I wouldn't equate a recommendation to release government funded software as public domain as an attack on the GPL either, unless you happen to believe that *all* software should be GPL.

badvogato: If you want to cry over an Akira Kurosawa film, watch Ikiru.

Earlier this month, I was married to my partner of nearly seven years, Simone. We had a wonderful wedding, followed by two lovely weeks sitting on a beach in Far North Queensland doing very little beyond reading, swimming, drinking great wine and eating amazing food.

The reading was mostly Homer's The Odyssey (Ancient Greek Homer, not Matt Groening Homer). Apart from being an great story, this is considered one of the first works of Western literature and offers (thanks to Homer's prolix style) much insight into the ancients' way of life and thought. I am amazed that this story is so timeless, perhaps something is added by the competent translation.

During this two week honeymoon I was _completely_ Internet-free. Despite this being a near eternity for me, I didn't miss it much. Upon my return I was expecting some interesting stuff to have happened, maybe some cool new software released, but never this whole OpenBSD/DARPA fiasco.

Right now, it looks like the issue was precipitated by Theo speaking his mind on the Iraq war. The whole thing is bizarre, more in line with China, Singapore, or some other authoritarian society than the one with the Bill of Rights (which IMO should be considered one of the Wonders of the world). But then, the current US administration (and their side of politics is not alone) doesn't seem to care too much for Enlightenment values.

The way in which the funding was pulled; two weeks before a booked hackathon to which much of the team will be attending (not me, unfortunately) which was to be funded from the grant is doubly insulting and belies a petty and punitive attitude.

We live in dark and moronic times.