Re: [Fsfe-uk] Re: M$ jump on the poverty bandwagon

[Chris Croughton]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 08:24:42AM +0100, Lee Braiden wrote:

> On Tuesday 05 Jul 2005 04:46, Mark Preston wrote:
> > Just as the pop stars who appeared on Live8 would presumably be unhappy
> > to consider abolishing or shortening music copyright laws for the common
> > good, I presume Bill Gates would still be unhappy about having to "open
> > source" Windows, or reduce the onerous terms of his various software
> > licences.
> 
> Yes, well... most pop stars don't steal their fellow pop-stars' ideas

Do pop stars these days have ideas?  I thought they only 'borrowed'
stuff and sold it as new...

> and then crush them.

No, they don't usually crush each other.  Except verbally, but that's
part of the act.

> Also, I seem to recall Bill being asked to lower the cost of 
> software in Africa so that people could actually afford his technology.  He 
> refused.

I remember something like that.  Other places as well (unless it's the
only way they can get in against the competition, when they'll drop the
prices to near zero to get people locked in).

> I'm also disturbed at how Bill has been popping up with world leaders etc. 
> recently.  Seems he's interested in becoming a political figure, and, if he's 
> appearing to crowds of teenagers at rock concerts rather than appearing on 
> the news or -- *gasp* giving anonymously and altruistically -- then I suspect 
> it has more to do with selling X-Boxes and/or online music services to 
> dominate markets, than anything else.

Of course.  But the same is true of most (not all, admittedly) of the
pop stars as well, it's free publicity (although according to the BBC
website a few of them actually had sales drop -- were they /that/ bad
live?).  They are being urged to give the profits from extra sales to
charity...

> Everyone can and will make up their own minds of course, but Bill and his 
> company have a long history of very nasty activities.  As someone said, a 
> person is not who they were the last time you met them, but who they've been 
> throughout your whole relationship.

Well, I prefer using a sliding window, anyone can reform.  But a one-off
don't impress me much (STR), nor does donating a few million out of
income in the milliards...

Chris C