I have no idea about "IDEA."

[none none]

--- Johan Wevers <johanw@vulcan.xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Therefore it's not theft, but something else: breaking copyright
> law.

We call it theft (maybe a semantics issue, maybe a phrase coined
by intellectual property owners, but it has become the most common
method of reference within the current English lexicon).

> And besides, Ascom is not a member of the BSA. As long as a
> company doesn't use unlicensed copies of MS or Adobe software
> there's not much reason for fear.

You missed my point completely. I said that merely avoiding any
bad publicity represents a sufficient reason not to violate the
Ascom copyright. As a reason, I stated that the BSA might notice
the publicity and say "this company violated the IDEA licensing
provisions. We should audit them and see if they have any other
unlicensed (or even licensed software that they can not 'prove'
that they have the licenses for) software."

> And the general public doesn't care wether a company uses
> unlicenced software, almost all private persons here do
> that, I too.

More people care here than you might think. I know a number of
people whose livelihoods depend on intellectual property (authors,
lawyers, people who work for pharmaceutical companies) who would
absolutely never use unlicensed software - even on their home
computers.

> Users != customers.

OK. How will they get new users?

Nobody will include a non-free crypto algorithm in any new product,
and the number of people using legacy applications will continue
to shrink.

> Good. Now I hope they don't come up with the idea that terrorists
> might use it, from whet I hear from here that seems to be sufficient
> to remove almost all personal liberties the government considers
> usable to terrorists.

I don't want to get into a debate about political systems, but I will
make a few points.

1. I don't agree with giving the government many of the new powers
(especially for monitoring citizens) that recent legislation allowed.

2. Your quote "sufficient to remove almost all personal liberties the
government considers usable to terrorists" represents a statement both
inflammatory and untrue.

3. As the world (figuratively) shrinks, I think we will see (to some
degree) a convergence of procedures like this among governments. We
need to stick together.

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