I am a man of fairly strong conviction. That does not mean I am not open to persuasion. In fact, it means I am. A man of true conviction – is dedicated to being correct. And that sometimes means being corrected.
But God has blessed me with a fairly strong innate tuning fork. Many of the things I think – I have thought for many decades. And the world has mostly done nothing – but time and again demonstrate the fork to be in tune.
The late, great Mark Twain was a wise and brilliant man – who from all appearances had a pretty good fork of his own. He noted two things in particular – upon which we will expound:
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”
Ah yes…the press. Big Media in today’s parlance.
In the great and underrated movie Little Big Man, General George Custer aptly describes the role of today’s Big Media:
“Anything that man tells me will be a lie. Therefore, he will be a perfect reverse barometer.”
I usually avoid Big Media like the plague. Thankfully, the private sector has delivered us an Internet with a cornucopia of news options from which to choose – rendering the lying Big Media less and less relevant every day.
But Big Media still holds much sway – so, so too does the wisdom of Twain and Little Big Man.
If you listen to Big Media – you’re mis-informed. Because Big Media is the perfect reverse barometer. If you find yourself on the side of their majority – you SERIOUSLY need to pause and reflect.
So when the decade-long lawsuit Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Inc. finally wended its way to the Supreme Court – I checked my tuning fork.
It told me what should be quite obvious to everyone:
Intellectual Property (IP) – is property. Stealing IP is wrong – and utterly destructive to any society looking to be a society.
Google is – with the exception of the entire thieving nation that is Communist China – the world’s largest IP thief.
So when Oracle alleges Google stole its IP – my fork tells me Google probably did.
Turns out – my utensil was correct:
“The dispute centers on the use of parts of the Java programming language’s application programming interfaces (APIs), which are owned by Oracle, within early versions of the Android operating system by Google.
“Google has admitted to using the APIs, and has since transitioned Android to a copyright-unburdened engine, but claims their original use of the APIs was within fair use.”
Ummm…Google can “transition” Android to being a can opener. It doesn’t change the fact that it used Oracle’s Java as the cornerstone building block – for any and all subsequent things Android does.
Java is “open source” software:
“Using Java APIs, developers can create new projects faster because they do not have to develop entirely new code. They can instead use Java APIs in a sort of cut-and-paste fashion, saving them time on grunt work and enabling them to focus more on innovation.”
Cool deal. The only part of the bargain to which Google had to adhere?:
“Java is ‘free and open’ – which means any and everyone can use it.
“With two conditions:
“You either make free and open – i.e. public – what you developed atop the Java base.
“Or
“You get a license from Oracle to use their Java.
“And here’s a surprise:
“Often, Oracle charges literally nothing for the license.
“All you have to do – is keep the Java software you use compatible. You cannot do anything to it – that might make it no longer play well with Java.
“Google – shocker – did none of the above. They took Oracle’s Java, remade it in their image – and then began playing hide and seek with the courts.”
Google stealing first and answering court filings later – is standard Google business practice.
Now, if I were at all in doubt of my tuning fork – I could turn to our perfect reverse barometer…Big Media. Needless to say, I am not in the majority of the Mis-Informing.
Everything You Need to Know about the Oracle Lawsuit against Google
As you can probably guess – it’s not everything we need to know…:
“The most recent ruling overturns decades of precedent about the spirit of innovation that up to this point has governed computer science: an environment in which developers build upon and improve others’ work, and write compatible programs designed to adapt to multiple ecosystems and the latest technology. In short, developers could be afraid to innovate because of a ruling by a judge in a court that doesn’t usually rule on consumer technology copyright law.”
Get that complete 180 away from reality?
The Bizarro “moral hazard” – as defined by Big Media – is stopping thief Google…will stop future thieves like Google.
No mention of the actual moral hazard damage done to open source platforms – and their providers. Who spend lots of time, effort and money maintaining and updating their open source platforms – but who will quite obviously stop doing all of this if their very minimal usage requirements are now longer legally required.
If any and everyone can steal your crops – are you going to spend lots of time, effort and money planting, watering and fertilizing the seeds?
Of course not. Because human nature.
More moronity from Big Media – as the case has made its way up the judicial food chain:
Why Google’s Victory in a Copyright Fight with Oracle is a Big Deal:
“(T)he case will set a precedent that could have a big impact on the software industry more broadly. If Oracle’s legal theory is upheld by the appellate courts, it could hamper efforts to improve software compatibility.”
Again, not mentioned: If Google’s heist is upheld by the Court, it definitely will hamper all efforts on open source platforms everywhere.
Unraveling the Oracle vs. Google Lawsuit:
“The side that has been most vocal online seems to be those in the developer and software community who believe a win for Google would be a win for the entire open source community. Though the most recent win for Oracle sounded alarm bells within the open source community, this verdict does not mean the case is over since Google can still appeal to the Supreme Court.”
Shocker: “The side that has been the most vocal…” – is on the wrong side of the case.
The “open source community”…?
Is a Big Media way of saying “gang of IP thieves.”
Most members of the “open source community” – aren’t worth the $1 trillion Google is.
So Google serves as the IP ice breaker.
Demolishing the open source system – so all the “open source community” brigands can swarm in and pick through the scraps Google leaves behind.
And Big Media – is backing Big Google’s heist.
If you’re listening to Big Media – you’re mis-informed. And taking seriously – the world’s hugest reverse barometer.
Which means it’s high time you pause and reflect.
This first appeared in Red State.