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Getting Rid of EULAs While Keeping the GPL | 26 comments (26 topical) | Post A Comment
Adam Smith's Invisible Hand[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#7)
by NegotiationPro on Tue Apr 12, 2005 at 01:47:34 PM PDT

While Adam Smith spoke of the invisible hand of the market, he never believd or said that the market would cure all ills.  He certainly believed government needed at times to step in and rein in the greed of some vendors.  

That would seem to apply  to vendors usign over-reaching EULAs.  The market is currently dominated by these hogs, and we need a federal law to limit them, as many pratices are limited, e.g. in credit reporting, truth in lending, pharmaceuticals, and many other examples (state law in the case of insurance contracst).  Sometimes buyers are outgunned and need a helping hand. That is what goivernment is, among other things, for.
Phil Marcus
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Do we need a law ?[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#12)
by Anonymous User on Tue Apr 12, 2005 at 09:42:39 PM PDT

The history of congressional action on Intellectual property rights has been abysmal. The current mess is more the result of exploiting legislation than a failure of the marketplace. In fact there are numerous signs that the existing system is failing and the marketplace is looking for a fix. The existance and success of Free and Open Source software is a reaction to the failure of the existing system. IBM and Microsoft are arguing for substantial patent reform. P2P is one giant self serving act of civil disobediance rejecting copyrights. Regardless of what the EU eventually does, there is a serious fight over IPR. And the developing world to a significant extent seems to have come to the realization that buying western IP permanently guarantees them a second or third tier status. I do not trust congress to do anything but make things worse. But then even that just speeds up the collapse of the existing system.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Getting Rid of EULAs While Keeping the GPL | 26 comments (26 topical) | Post A Comment
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