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<TITLE>RE: Open Source Values</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Brian Densmore wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Open source is about freedom, but not all government</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> regulation is bad.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Freedom "to" or freedom "from"?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>That's a kind of empty statement. I for one think government regulations limiting government regulations are a good thing ;) The government which governs best governs least, and all that. But what's government? What we're really talking about is the centralization of coercive power. Parents govern their children. A handful of Rockefellers govern international monetary policy. Where should the control lie? IMHO, coercive power should be as decentralized as is feasible.</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> I like knowing that not any Joe</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Schmoe can get a license to practice medicine,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>In Kansas, a chiropractor can do a physical. Not to knock chiropractors, but they aren't general physicians. They are going to miss things a MD or DO would catch. Yet English physicians who have hands down better clinical skills than your average American MD or DO can not do a physical in Kansas. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Why not let the consumers and the doctor's employer decide which accreditations are viable? Why is the big stick of national government necessary here?</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> or that vehicles have to meet a minimum standard of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> to be considered road worthy </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Have you been outside lately? Cars only have to have _once_ been considered road worthy. And look at the barrier to entry in the automotive market. There aren't any "new" players. Just slow and steady consolidation heading toward stagnation...</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Look what's happened to the aerospace industry. How many American manufacturers of planes are left? I wonder whether Scaled Composites and Armadillo Aerospace will be beaten into regulatory submission if they refuse to sell out to the established players?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> or that daycare facilities need to check for criminal</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> records before hiring. I like the idea of my children</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> being cared for by people who haven't been convicted</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> of being a pedophile. Call me crazy.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Do they really? Can you cite the statute? How effective has it been?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> The problem is some times there's too much and other times</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> there's not enough.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>No. The problem is that sometimes it is coercive and sometimes it isn't. </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>People love to talk about how the FDA protects us from bad drugs. Ask them to show you some measurable proof and they'll grow quite. How does the body count add up? How many lives are saved versus lives lost? Go look for the answers and you'll find quite a different story: <A HREF="http://www.fdareview.org/harm.shtml" TARGET="_blank">http://www.fdareview.org/harm.shtml</A>. Did you know that most hospital patients are given drugs that aren't even FDA approved for their proscribe use?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>What are the detrimental effects of the FDA? How about the excessive costs required to get drugs through the process? So much for the yearly updates to vaccines for children and the elderly. And you can also count out drugs for people suffering from rare diseases. The return on investment doesn't match the cost.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>What about the time it takes to work the process? Prior to 1962 it took around 7 months from the filing of an IND to approval. In the 80's and 90's it took 8 years on average. Recently it has averaged around 7.3 years. How many people die waiting for the FDA to approve drugs? How many people suffer needlessly?</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> I also like knowing that not just any Joe Shmoe can contribute</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> to the official Linux kernel. There are regulations in place to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> prevent that. </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Huh? I assume by official, you're talking about Linus' kernel and not the NSA's. Anybody _can_ contribute to Linus' kernel. There aren't regulations in place to prevent that. There are self-governing processes in place to prevent people submitting code encumbered by coercive licenses and patents. There's a big difference. You can always opt out of the process by forking the kernel. You can't opt to be seen by the visiting foreign doctor or drive an unlicensed and unregistered car you built yourself...</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> I like the idea that any Joe Schmoe has the freedom to qualify</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> under the existing fair regulations to be able to contribute to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> the Linux kernel. Freedom is great but without some form of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> control there is chaos and chaos is not always a good thing.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>I hate it when people use the word fair. It rarely means what it is supposed to mean. Is it fair for Microsoft to allow the "fair" use of patents by standards organizations? When fair means at a fair and equal cost? I.e. available to everyone except their chief competitor in standards compliant infrastructure building blocks... the OSS community?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>By control, what you're really saying is that one group of people know better than another, and that it is alright for them to force others to adhere to their standards. I think that is a dangerous statement. Especially when there's no telling which group of people you're standing with on each toss of the coin.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Freedom is the flipside of coercion. And coercion is rarely a good thing. The only valid example I can think of, is to counteract the coercive efforts of others.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>There's a difference between a self-regulating OSS community and government. You opt-in to an OSS community. You can only opt-out of local, city, and state government by moving. It is a little harder to opt out of national regulations.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>--</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Garrett Goebel</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>IS Development Specialist</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>ScriptPro Direct: 913.403.5261</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>5828 Reeds Road Main: 913.384.1008</FONT>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=2>www.scriptpro.com garrett at scriptpro dot com</FONT>
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