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Message: <blockquote data-quote="maddman75" data-source="post: 88874" data-attributes="member: 2673">Never get into an IP discussion where Open Source fans can be found ><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />First of all there is NO SUCH THING as intellectual proerty.  That is a fantasy of the media conglomerates that thier copyrights will last forever.  No IP, never was, never will be.There is no right to control of your creations.What there is is a special exception to my rights to free speech and free press, in order to encourage creativity.  That is fine - but lets not pretend that copyright is inalienable or anything.  It prevents me from publishing the works of others.Within this we have the idea of fair use, which is to say that as long as I'm not publishing, I can do whatever I want with it.  This has been trampled by DVD encrypting (which is simple to crack, its only protected by keeping programmers from even discussing it - in clear violation of the 1st amendment) and DVD region encoding.  Not to mention the new Universal crippled CDs that might or might not work in your stereo and computer - and definetely will not work if you don't use windows)If you are interested in this, go to <a href="http://www.gnu.org" target="_blank">http://www.gnu.org</a> and read some of Richard Stallman's speeches.  They explain the position better than I can <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.  The basic open source position is this:  A person should be paid for thier labor, not some fictional 'IP', which is governmental control of the people.  For instance, a programmer would work for X company to solve Y problem.  His resulting work is released to the public for others to use and learn from.  The company hasn't lost anything, their problem is solved.  The programmer still gets paid, and when the company needs to add such and such feature to the program, odds are likely someone else has done a similar thing.  Another example is Larry Wall.  He invented a programming language called Perl.  It is used to power most of the interactive sites on the web (including this forum IIRC).  He gave it away - it is free and open.  He makes quite a good living writing books on how to program in perl.  He wins, society wins.Granted, this doesn't work as well for all media - but some openness can be energize an industry.  Do you think 3e would be as big if the copyright police were as adamant as they used to be in the bad old days?  If there were no Hackmaster, no Sword and Sorcery, No AEG or Mongoose - would 3e be as big?  No.  With the OGL wizards allows others to use their "ip" and they benefit from this.  Some form of copyrights are needed for some works, but not all of them.  The entire system is broken and falling apart in the face of new technology.  ANyway, I'll stop now before this thread becomes hopelessly political.Now make sure no one mentions patent laws - or we'll have to take this to a forum where I can cuss <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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