[Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] [IAEP] MOTION: French visa for Samson Goddy to attend 10-year Anniversary Scratch Conf / 50-year Anniversary of Logo

[Tony Anderson]

This thread still refers to Samson Goddy obtaining a visa to attend a 
Scratch Conference in Bordeaux France. I still have
no idea how this thread got distracted to discussing details of software 
licensing. The primary issue here is whether or not
he can get a visa and can attend the conference.

I realize the issue of 'intellectual property' is serious and worthy of 
discussion in its own right, but off topic here, in my opinion.

Tony

On 06/14/2017 10:07 PM, D. Joe wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 07:06:06AM +0200, Tony Anderson wrote:
>
>> It must be a sign of a mature organization that it has so much time to
>> devote to this.
> Dealing with the strictures of the law and of various agreements is not, as
> you might cast it, some luxury that we are indulging in.
>
> This is one of the more frustrating things for me in this type of
> discussion, running up against the attitude that the challenges of
> copyrights and licenses are somehow created by, or somehow the fault of,
> those of us who usually are just trying to navigate them as freely as we
> can, trying to make sure that our collaborative peers, and that those
> downstream of us, get the same freedom.
>
> FOSS advocates didn't create copyright, and we certainly didn't create the
> situation where copyright restrictions attach to a work AUTOMATICALLY at the
> time of its creation.[1] Since these restrictions arise automatically, the
> need to have a license to use the works legally (in most cases) also arises
> automatically.
>
> Fortunately, as constraining as the situation is, its basics are also pretty
> clear, so once someone's unfamiliarity is revealed, it can be addressed.
>
> tl;dr: I'm sorry you're just now learning how horrible the default situation
> is, but now that you know, I hope you can continue to work to make it less
> horrible. One way you can do that is by refraining from comments like those
> quoted above.
>
> [1] in the US since it became party to the Berne convention on copyright in
>      1988 (effective 1989)
>