All over the FPC website and many FPC related websites, and many other Open Source and GNU websites, are a bunch of 'NO PATENT' logos.
Do not support Patents!
They are great!
What?
Contradiction
Well what I'm getting at, is that all the people who put up these 'NO PATENT' logos all over the FPC websites and other open source websites are contradicting themselves.
For example, most of the people that are AGAINST PATENTS are supporting things like Morfik, Macintosh, and IBM.
Ibm, has partnered with Linux.. and funds linux. IBM holds tons of patents, and is actively supporting them and encouraging their use. See IBM-And-Linux-Is-A-Scam then come back here and read, read, read.
Offtopic aside: then there are folks who are environmentalists, and they happen to use Macintosh computers because they are well, more cool and more artsy. The only problem is, Macintosh uses plastics that pollute the world far more than Dell computers.. Dell is one of the leading companies focused on getting rid of bad plastics in computers, while Mac/Apple is one of the worst companies. (At the time of writing this article, I own neither a Mac or a Dell, for your information, and I am even considering Mac's for their BSD capabilities, so don't think I'm being biased). Update: Mac is getting better about the environment lately after these issues were publicized.
As soon as it is announced that Morfik will be using FPC, many of the FPC developers and users are immediately enthused and extremely happy that Morfik is using FPC, completely ignoring the fact that the FPC website has 'NO PATENT' logos up everywhere. If you didn't know, Morfik is applying/trying hard to get Patents, lots of them. Not that I disagree with Morfik, after all, if that is a way to make money, and if it works, and if that's what has to be done to put bread on the table.. well.. okay.
Freepascal's very own Florian K. on the FPC mailing lists declares that patents are essentially useless, except, for the fact, that they allow one to make money in business. Hmm.. and money is, well, quite useless in our world today, isn't it. Cough sarcasm cough. Freesarcasm 2.0 is released!!!!
Destructive criticism?
Some would argue that I cannot make constructive criticism. I would argue that I'm honest, and that I'm not some fanboy who looks at everything through rose colored glasses.
I personally don't agree with the over-use of patents.. for example I give away a lot of algorithms and code, and I personally do not hold a single patent as of 2007. My point is just that people contradict themselves.. and when money or fame comes in (such as fpc being more famous now that morfik has mentioned it will use fpc) people immediately put on their rose colored glasses and start back peddling.
People ignore their previous ethics and start making up new ethics from thin air, in order to support their fame. "Patents are bad! but if it makes us famous, patents are good !!!!! I'm a hypocrite and I smell like cow shit! My name is freepascal fanboy!!"
"To declare that a person is "seeing through rose-colored glasses" implies that they are an optimist, only seeing the good and neglecting to notice the bad." --Wikipedia
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