Cybernethics / Cybernéthique

I can't believe that a law that would have made criminals of Shakespeare and Molière could in any way promote literature. I can't believe that a law that promotes dead music over live music could in any way be promoting music.

I am glad to announce my latest piece of semi-useful software, CL-Launch, an infrastructure to easily make your Common Lisp software launchable from a Unix command line.

Now that I have a newly working Lisp development system running Debian, complete with XEmacs, CLISP, SLIME, SSH and CVS, I have taken time to publish my Common Lisp software in the updated form of asdf packages, ready to be installed with asdf-install. Yup, that packaging software is named ASDF. Not SHRDLU.

Last wednesday, I met Mr. Libertarianism @ Japan, one of the happy few japanese libertarians. Quite a nice fellow.

Since I don't escape the current events, but only report them late, here is the inevitable Tolkien entry for my blog.

Information protectionists and other corporate fascist try to sell us software, goods or services under the terms of shrinkwrap licences they unilaterally define, and that they claim to bind you by your merely opening the package. Well, as a reply to such juridic abuse, I hereby introduce a solution to all these problems. Indeed, I have no less right than these fascists to impose unilateral terms that apply to people who want to do business with me. So I hereby solemnly declare that anyone who undertakes to have any business whatsoever with me is bound by the terms of following contract, therefrom known as the end-seller license.

OK, I know there are many other things I should have been writing instead, but this was near the top of by writing list for a long time, so it was the one I picked while I procrastinated my other activities. So here it is, completed at last: Government and Microsoft: a Libertarian View on Monopolies.

The article explains what I think of the case of Government against Microsoft, and about the notion of Monopoly and the issue of Intellectual Property that are at the heart of this case, despite having been systematically avoided by the prosecution and defense alike.