[d at DCC] The Commodore 64 continuum: "open source" hardware...

[Russell McOrmond]

Sending a letter in reply to an article from earlier this month:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=41320

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 20:00:55 -0500
From: Russell McOrmond
To: sschick
Subject: Re: The Commodore 64 continuum: "open source" hardware...


    I am a fan of the Commodore 64.  My Apple II clone, my Vic 20, and my 
Commodore 64 all had 65xx processors in them, and each one came with full 
schematics of the hardware with the manuals.  One of my jobs in the late 80's 
and early 90's was as a certified Commodore repair person for Eastern Ontario, 
a job where the skills were self-taught.

   We are heading to a situation where the old-economy music labels, movie 
studies, and proprietary software vendors are colluding with hardware 
manufacturers and misinformed governments to legalize and legally protect the 
concept of "no owner modifiable parts inside".  They want to take away our 
right to tinker, even disallowing computer owners from making our own software 
choices.

   How I learned computing, both hardware and software, is increasingly being 
considered illegal.

   I believe that governments must firmly reject this attack on property, 
creative, educational and other rights.  We should be going the other way by 
mandating that hardware manufacturers provide adequate documentation to 
hardware owners so we can author our own software to share if we wish.  No 
exclusive right, whether copyright or patents, should ever be allowed on 
interfaces.  The property rights of hardware owners should always trump the 
extremism that has allowed hardware manufacturers to treat their customers as a 
threat rather than the very people who drive the future of computing.

   I sit here on Christmas day thinking of Christmas past where I was given some 
of this hardware.  I feel sad that children approximately 20 years later will 
not be able to receive the same level of gift that will benefit them in their 
future.

Russell McOrmond
Ottawa, Canada
http://flora.ca

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!"