Warenwirtschaftssystem für Linux

[Christian Heller]

> > Ist das Free/OpenSource?
>
> Nein, steht aber, soweit ich informiert bin, unter GNU/GPL.
>
> Johannes

Na das geht ja wohl schlecht. Alle GNU/GPL Programme sind FREE!

In diesem Zusammenhang forwarde ich Euch mal einen interessanten
Beitrag zur aktuellen Diskussion um Software Patente.
Er kann auch eingesehen werden unter LinuxToday:
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-02-05-011-06-PS-CY


----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
Subject: Re: [Osdem]'nother report
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 22:55:34 +0100
From: Geert Poels <Geert.Poels at skynet.be>
To: osdem at lists.raphinou.com


Stallman at Brussels conference
by Paul Meller, IDG News Service\Brussels Bureau
February 05, 2001, 06:01

Civil liberties are under attack in Europe in the form of software
legislation and cyber-crime codes, open source software guru Richard
Stallman warned this weekend.

Stallman called on like-minded Europeans to organize themselves to fight
the new legislation, speaking at a two-day conference hosted by the Flemish
Free University of Brussels.

"It is going to be necessary to organize yourselves politically to change
government policy," he told a packed auditorium of students and Linux
devotees Saturday.

The European Commission, the European Union's executive body, is the main
culprit in eroding civil liberties, he said. "The part of the Commission in
charge of deciding how to shape European patenting laws for the software
industry isn't the part that's in charge of software development," he said.
"If it isn't stopped it will push the EU to adopt a software patent
 directive."

Stallman advised his audience to educate European parliamentarians who, he
said "don't understand the issue at all." He also recommended aiming the
anti-software patenting campaign at national governments.

The European Parliament and national government ministers would have to
approve any Europe-wide legislation on software patenting. Stallman said
one encouraging sign is that German and French governments appear to be set
against such legislation. "There is still hope," he said.

"Big U.S. corporations and the U.S. government -- their servant -- are
pushing hard for Europe to accept software patents," Stallman said. "You
have to work together to fight this."

However, even if the pressure from the US is not successful, European civil
liberties could still be jeopardized by the proposed Hague Treaty, an
international doctrine being drafted by the EU and countries including the
U.S. The Hague Treaty would allow companies in one country with software
patents to defend those patents in another country that doesn't have such
laws. "This could be very dangerous for European software developers,"
Stallman said.

The cyber-crime initiative launched last month by the Commission poses
specific threats to civil liberties, he said. "Some software reverse
engineering would be prohibited under this code," Stallman said. "There are
other dangers to civil liberties in this code too," he added. [See EU
unveils plan to fight cybercrime Jan. 30.)

The Commission's paper on cyber-crime proposes a number of legislative and
non-legislative actions. Legislative proposals include harmonizing member
states' laws. In the short term, those relating to child pornography
offenses and incitement to racism will be targeted, and in the longer term
the commission will bring forward proposals to harmonize criminal law on
high-tech crime, including hacking and denial of service attacks.

Stallman's 75 minute-long speech captivated the 500-strong audience. It
mostly laid out his well-known views on why patents are inappropriate to
software. Software design, he said, is fundamentally different from
tangible physical design, which he agreed should be patentable.

First, there are no revolutionary leaps forward in software design, but
incremental steps forward, building on previous ideas.

Second, software designers don't have to deal with the problems faced by
working with matter. "Matter is perverse," Stallman said. "Engineers
dealing with matter face a whole level of difficulty that we don't face."

Third, Stallman pointed out that unlike designers of physical things
"software designers don't need a factory to produce their ideas. "We just
press 'copy'," he said.

The message was deadly serious, but the delivery was true to Stallman form:
he kicked off his sneakers at the start and conducted the session in blue
socks and brown slacks with a sopranino recorder (a flute-like musical
instrument) sticking out of his right pocket and a crinkled burgundy polo
shirt that stretched over his round belly. His long, curly hair swayed to
and fro as he gesticulated generously with his arms to make his point.

He ended the speech on a humorous note by introducing St IGNUcius, his
reverend alter ego. He reached for a plastic supermarket bag on the desk
beside him and produced a black embroidered poncho and an old computer disc
platter. He slipped the poncho over his head and attached the platter to
the crown of his head, halo-like, and recited: "There is no system but GNU,
and Linux is one of its kernels. Sainthood in the Church of Emacs requires
living a life of purity -- but in the Church of Emacs, this does not
require celibacy. Being holy in our church means installing a wholly free
operating system and not putting any non-free software on your computer.
Join the Church of Emacs, and you too can be a saint!"

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Kind regards,
Christian

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