It’s The EFF Sir, and they have a Flag

Paraphrasing Eddie Izzard. “Mr Gates, it’s the EFF and the Copyleft Brigade. They’re Here.” “What do they want?” “I don’t know, but they’ve got a flag…”

Through an inspired speech that sounded like it could have been written by Senator Joe McCarthy, Bill Gates managed to label every artist, commentator, mover and thinker who believes in more open-ness in rights to be a Communist, and only the money grabbing imperialist mega-corporations (who are working with the Windows Media Centre) are the true way forward.

That makes me mad. Just because a trade doesn’t involve money doesn’t mean it has no rewards. OPL is Open Source (free), so is that communist? What about FreEPOC and almost all of my Psion and Symbian software? Or the information freely available on All About Symbian? Does it make Cory Doctorow the Karl Marx of the Digital Age? After all not only is his propoganda being given away for free, but he’s been rewarded with a Nebula nomination for “Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom.”

Where’s the tolerance for the view of others? I thought we were trying to leave all this behind as we evolved?

Probably the one thing this speech has done that’s good is flooded the net not with principle and legal speak, but allowed everyone to rally under a single symbol. And when you have something easily identifiable, that people can rally behind (like a flag), then you have the beginnings of something utterly mind-blowing.

Thanks Bill.