On 21/03/2019, Julian Andres Klode <j...@debian.org> wrote: > I'm not sure why you are supporting Oracle's position, but consider > the impact on the computing world of that position, and what trouble > it causes if it wins.
I can't answer for Paul, and I really don't care about neither Oracle or Google. But there is a huge difference between reimplementing a standard interface like POSIX and depending on a creative work that is original. Whenever a standard exists, anything that implement it, even partially, is NOT subject to this issue. And in the long run, throwing away the complexity of supporting old proprietary formats that not even the original vendor actually support anymore could improve the quality of the Free Software as a whole. The WINE / ReactOS cases are unfortunate. But in the long run, not being able to copy proprietary code might greatly improve the innovation in Free Software while keeping such innovation under Commons (with a strong copyleft, possibly with a wider reach of AGPL), might invert the power dynamics between independent innovative hackers and large corporations. Don't forget that we are not in 1999 anymore. Lots corporate code is "open source": OSS has become a fundamental tool to gain market share and user trust. On the other hand, if I donate original code to everybody, I don't want it to be Embraced, Extended and Extinguished by any organization. Informatics is still at a very early stage of its development. As primitive as it is, most of proprietary software is crap and we all know this despite trained to ignore its glitches "because worse is better". The future might be Free Software if no one could actually close it in any way. Giacomo
