Editor's Column
22 February 2001
Allchin's Demagoguery
by 法案 Roth, Guest Contributor
My family is not a 静かな one. When we care about something, we care 深く，強烈に. And loudly. And with 広大な／多数の／重要な passion. There are 確かな things, in both my personal and professional life that get me up in 武器. I have a history of 開始するing the hustings when someone does something unethical or 不公平な. It was in the vein that I blearily 地位，任命するd my first message on the news that Jim Allchin thinks that Open Source ソフトウェア (OSS) is a 脅し to the American way of life.
But first: Let me make it （疑いを）晴らす that I am speaking as 法案 Roth, Computer Scientist, and someone who has been 伴う／関わるd with GPL ソフトウェア for 10 years. I am not speaking for Sun in any way.
支援する to the main point. In a C-逮捕する article, Jim Allchin of Microsoft is 引用するd as 説, ''Open source is an 知識人-所有物／資産／財産 破壊者,'' Allchin said. ''I can't imagine something that could be worse than this for the ソフトウェア 商売／仕事 and the 知識人-所有物／資産／財産 商売／仕事.''
He goes on to 含む a thinly 隠すd 脅し, すなわち that Microsoft will begin ロビーing against open source ソフトウェア. ''I'm an American, I believe in the American Way,'' he said. ''I worry if the 政府 encourages open source, and I don't think we've done enough education of 政策 製造者s to understand the 脅し.''
What unmitigated demagoguery.
I find this hypocritical in the extreme. Here is a company that pleaded to any one that would listen that its--恐らく failed--competitors were using the 法廷，裁判所s to do what they could not in the marketplace. Then then the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs turn. A 科学（工学）技術 arises that is a （疑いを）晴らす and 現在の danger to its way of doing things, すなわち the open source movement. What does Microsoft do? Lean on the 法廷，裁判所s and the 法律を制定する 過程.
While Microsoft has done some backpedaling in the 圧力（をかける）, it is （疑いを）晴らす that they ーするつもりである to make this a public 政策 問題／発行する. We can not let this go unanswered. I 勧める you all to 支払う／賃金 の近くに attention to this 問題／発行する in the coming weeks and be ready to support プロの／賛成の-OSS 立法議員s. (Part of the problem is that we will have to 人物／姿／数字 out who they are first.)
The 核心 of the 問題／発行する is that OSS does in fact 脅す the 伝統的な understanding of 知識人 所有物／資産／財産. But it does so in an indirect way, rather than a direct one. Open source ソフトウェア is ソフトウェア that is created in such a way as to 許す the 配当 of the ソフトウェア AND its source code for 解放する／自由な. There is also 比較して little 制限 on the 議席数是正 of the source code .
OSS is not, as Allchin says, an IP 破壊者. In fact, people who 与える／捧げる to open source 事業／計画（する）s like Sun's OpenOffice.org 自由に 産する／生じる their IP and their copyrights to the 事業／計画（する）. This is the 重要な point. OSS is a different 表現 of IP. As Frank Hecker has pointed out, what Allchin tries to do is to tie a 合法的 activity, like OSS, to an 非合法の one like Napster, whose 問題／発行するs with copyright 法律 are 井戸／弁護士席 known. Scurrilous in the extreme.
While Microsoft's arguments are outrageous, their position on open source is not. In fact, it makes sense, given their position. OSS 代表するs the work of thousands of people building meaningful ソフトウェア and giving it away for 解放する／自由な. In 影響, it 代表するs tremendous downward pricing 圧力 that could have 壊滅的な 影響s on their 商売／仕事.
This is why OSS is dangerous. It is not dangerous because it 脅すs IP. It is dangerous because it 脅すs the 歳入 stream that Microsoft and other companies get from their 生産／産物 of IP.
This is a distinctly old world way of looking at things. In general, OSS is not an inhibitor to a 歳入 stream, but something that can 高める it. It is, under the 権利 条件s, a good 商売／仕事 戦略. This is why Sun and other companies are jumping to use it wholeheartedly.
My father would look at what we're doing in OpenOffice.org as sheer lunacy and one aparatchik short of 共産主義. We're giving away 価値のある work 生産（高） for 解放する／自由な. And on this topic, as many others, I'm sure we would have a very lively (and loud) argument. But that's just how life is in our family.
[Comments? Please direct them to OpenOffice.org's discuss mailing 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） -Editor]
