[mv] [off-topic] more UCITA news (bad), especially for Virginians (fwd)

[Birgitt Funk <birgitt@tux.org>]

Maryland, Virginia and Ohio ... may be you want to write your Senators too
when the time comes in your state, as you all use open source software in
using MiniVend.

The attached sample letter was provided by a Virginian to a local LInux
User group.

Birgitt Funk


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 09:00:50 -0500 (EST)
From:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: more UCITA news (bad), especially for Virginians


The Virginia house passed UCITA; folks, contact your state senators!
 http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/02/14/2221203&mode=thread
 http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ec/xml/00/02/14/000214ecucita.xml

For more on UCITA and why you should fight it, see the Free Software
Foundation's "Why We Must Fight UCITA"
 http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/ucita.html


Greg, Stephan, other VA folks, ... anything you can do as representatives
of a very successful tech company with a Virginia presence?

http://www.bastille-linux.org/ : working towards more secure Linux systems


 

Well, I know my senator probably hasn't had his penguin implant yet.  And I
know many of you will have words of wisdom to impart to me for what I've
written, either in the form of praise or flames.  But for what it's worth,
here's my letter to my state senator in it's entirety.  I know it's not
completely accurate.  I know I probably made some mistakes.  But, hey, the bit
stream already went down the pipe.  So try and keep it constructive, okay?  And
when you are telling me what I SHOULD have written, I expect you will be
appending YOUR letter to your response to me.  Any of you are free to use the
letter in it's entirety or in part.  Cut it. Paste it. Modify it.  Edit it. 
Just do me two favors.  Mean it.  And, send it.  Here's mine.

-----------

Dear Senator Mims,

	My name is Tim Bogart.  I am one of your constituants and I live in
Sterling, Virginia.  I voted for you in the republican primaries and again in
the election.  

	I'm writing you about your vote on a bill which you will be considering
soon which affects me an hundreds of my friends, not to mention every
consumer in our district.  I'm writing you about the UCITA bill. I believe it
to be bad law and would like to sway you to vote against it.

	The UCTIA bill allows software vendors to retroactively change their
licensing agreements.  A licensing agreement is a form of a contract between
the consumer and the software vendor.  I for one would like to go back and
retroactively change the terms of some contracts I've signed in my life, but
the law does not allow me to do this.  Software vendors should be subject to be
forced to honor their agreements.

	This bill limits liability for software vendors like Microsoft and at
the same time increases liability for software written by good Samaritans,
novices, and amateurs.  In this respect the bill would be absolutely
devastating to the open software community (of which I am a member) and harm
consumers in ways neither of us have yet to even imagine.  Consumers need
to be able to hold software vendors liable for faulty, defective and even in
some cases even destructive software (I speak of the AOL version 5 "upgrade"
sometimes referred to as "The Upgrade from Hell").  The software industry
habitually releases software to the market which is no where near ready for
public consumption.  The impending release of Microsoft Windows 2000 with all
of it's 65,000 bugs that Microsoft itself recognizes is a glowing example of
this type of cavalier careless.  

	The UCITA bill makes reverse engineering of certain products illegal.  Ford
and GM, DuPont and 3M have been reverse engineering each other's products for
decades.  There is nothing illegal about it.  Why should computer programing
be any different? As a matter of fact, reverse engineering of patented products
has great benefits for consumers in that reverse engineering of products or
processes forces the originator of the technology to continue improving the
product and or process in order to stay ahead of their competitors and retain
the market share they achieved by the development of the product or process, 
rather than resting on their laurels and using a law firm to maintain a monopoly
position by squashing competitors using bad law.  I believe in tort reform. 
I believe in our constitution, and the rule of law.  I also believe our
society is too litigious.  I believe UCITA would lead to more lawsuits, not
less.  Reverse engineering is an accepted practice in all other industries. 
Reverse engineering is not theft.  And as I think of it, nearly every area of
scientific research whether it be biology, medicine, genetics, or astrophysics,
the methods incorporated in the act of research are exercises in the reverse
engineering of nature.  It is figuring out how something works, and developing
another way of doing it, that's all.   This keeps patent holders continually
looking for better and more efficient ways of doing things and that is a
benefit to consumers.  

	Those of us in the open source community believe in sharing
information.  Imagine where the medical profession would be today if they did
not share information openly with each other.  The discipline of computer
science is in it's infancy compared to other professions.  This bill will have
the effect of hamstringing the progress of the profession of computer science
by increasing liability of developers engaging in open development.  

	The open source community develops open source software because we, as
software consumers want good, reliable, dependable software which doesn't crash,
destroy data, or generally misbehave or act in an unpredictable manner.  The
software developed by the open source community is widely accepted to be of the
most if not the most stable software available anywhere.  That's why NASA uses
it on the space shuttle.  The scientific community has been aware of and using
open source software for years.  Open source software has the potential of
saving taxpayers tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars because it is
given away for free, it's the most reliable platform available, and so many
useful programs are available for it.  This is why backers of UCITA like
Microsoft would like to see you and your piers vote this bill into law.  

	We in the open source community are the only people who have anything
which will keep the likes of Bill Gates honest.  I speak of Linux.  The Linux
operating system is the "level playing field" most software vendors were
expecting when Bill Gates got started.  

	Senator please, don't kill Linux.  Vote to kill UCITA.

Sincerely,