No other way to put this. The election of Obama as president, and a sitting congress comprised with a majority seating of Democrats in both houses... has officially utterly screwed open source.
If you thought that the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, and their friends were hard hitting in the past when it comes to removing personal freedoms, ownership, fair-use, and everything else, the next two years are going to be extremely tough.
The only plus to the election disaster today is that the liberal democrats and their anti-consumer friends only hold 53 Votes in the Senate, 7 spots shy of the needed 3/5th's number of 60 votes, as well as only holding 242 votes in the house, 46 votes shy of the 2/3 majority rule. In 2 years time, consumers will have a chance to kick the Democrats out of majority in congress, and put representatives in place that will stand in for the consumers rights.
Remember basic politics 001. Obama, as president, can't actually do anything for any extended length of time without congressional approval. He can't pass laws, order military action, place judges, or any real tasks without the approval of congress.
So the good news is, the democrats don't have enough votes to do any real damage, and in 2 years time, that capability can be rejected outright.
3 comments:
so open source is screwed?
I think you should read this post of Linus Torvalds
http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2008/11/black-and-white.html
What does Obama being elected president have to do with open source? And how could that possibly be worse than having a republican president? Not sure I understand - much less agree with - your point of view.
Dude, take a deep breath, and count slowly to ten... *whoosh*
A thing like open source can't be killed anymore than communism and socialism could be killed in the Red Scare. Yes, reds were lynched, imprisoned and censored but you can't kill an idea, for an idea isn't alive for its own sake, but for the sake of its being a part of a culture, a part of us. Not to mention that software is far more ephemeral than political science.
Everything will be OK... or at the very least, workable. ;)
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