British government thugs don't like the fact that Free Software exists

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2020-9080-2051196-9080,00.html

Free software? You can't just give it away
Who could be upset by a scheme that allows free use of software? Well, Gervase Markham has found one Trading Standards officer who is

(...)One of my roles at the Mozilla Foundation relates to copyright licensing. I'm responsible for making sure that the software we distribute respects the conditions of the free software licences of the underlying code. I'm also the first point of contact for licensing questions.

(...)A little while ago, I received an e-mail from a lady in the Trading Standards department of a large northern town. They had encountered businesses which were selling copies of Firefox, and wanted to confirm that this was in violation of our licence agreements before taking action against them.

I wrote back, politely explaining the principles of copyleft – that the software was free, both as in speech and as in price, and that people copying and redistributing it was a feature, not a bug. I said that selling verbatim copies of Firefox on physical media was absolutely fine with us, and we would like her to return any confiscated CDs and allow us to continue with our plan for world domination (or words to that effect).

Unfortunately, this was not well received. Her reply was incredulous:

"I can't believe that your company would allow people to make money from something that you allow people to have free access to. Is this really the case?" she asked.

"If Mozilla permit the sale of copied versions of its software, it makes it virtually impossible for us, from a practical point of view, to enforce UK anti-piracy legislation, as it is difficult for us to give general advice to businesses over what is/is not permitted." (...)(more at link)

[Benfea]

1. There's a very good reason Monty Python spent so much time...

…making fun of British bureaucracy.

Damn, but that's insane. Why the @$#%& would anyone attempt to enfoce anti-piracy laws with regards to open source software? Jeez-o-Pete!

[supernova]

2. Unclear on the concept

of "freeware" she is.

[YankeyMCC]

3. Ok that's hysterical

or maybe scary...but it's Friday I'll pick hysterical for now. ;)