🚀 go-pugleaf

From article <1992Jan11.120650.513@nntp.hut.fi>, by jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala):
> It doesn't.  Finnish law and most countries' laws don't apply to
> other nations.

Right - but strangely enough many Americans seem to think US law
applies to everyone on this earth (and to Martians, if they
only knew how to apply it :-). (This remark is intended to catch
the attention of right-wing FSF fanatics :-).

Also, a lot of Americans think laws about products are more important
than the products themselves. If you think that's strange, have a
look at an internet newsgroup called 'gnu.misc.discuss'. There you
find a fine example of American political lobbying, under the cover
of a seemingly innocent organization producing software that's almost
free. Almost.

HEY GUYS AND GALS, HAVEN'T YOU GOT ANYTHING BETTER TO DO THAN WHINING
ABOUT LAW AND POLITICS? Why isn't this group discussing about
wonderful new software that could be written? Or talking about
new approaches to writing software?

Why is typical GNU software a remake of something that has been around
for a long time, preferrably for decades already? Isn't the FSF in
an ideal situation to try something new in software, not facing the
risks of a commercial enterprise?

As far as I can tell, the FSF is not about writing good and free
software. It's about how to annoy commercial enterprises who are trying
to earn a living from fine software (more advanced and of better
quality than the GNU stuff usually). It's about politics and lobbying.

I'm not taking a position on whether the FSF political view is
right or not. It seems just as silly as software patents to me.
I just wished you were more concerned about writing great software
than about legal and political stuff. When I first heard of the
GNU project I thought I'd finally found a group of people serious
about writing free software. Such a dissappointment.

Oh well, I guess it's my European cultural background that's playing
up ;-).

- Reinoud