[Openstreetmap] [lawrence at altlawforum.org: [Commons-Law] Proposal to abolish Crown Copyright]

[Lars Aronsson]

Saul Albert wrote:
> Would it help OSM to have a political party such as the Greens backing it
> on a specific agenda? Sounds like they might be amenable to the argument.

If I thought that a political movement could improve society, I 
might have been in politics and not a programmer.  Are the Greens 
in Britain anywhere near government?  They are in the federal 
government in Germany, and I haven't heard that they have had any 
impact on copyright issues at all.  In Sweden they are not in the 
government, but a strategic parliament ally with the governing 
social democrats.  Some Swedish greens are advocating free 
software etc., but I haven't seen any results of this policy.  
All other issues seem to be more important than this, when it 
comes to daily negotiations and compromises.  So even if such a 
policy sounds right, it can be a false lead that only points in 
the right direction but never starts to move.

Did you know that the Swedish social democrats always had the 
introduction of a republic in their programme?  Did you know that 
they held government for 40 years unbroken (1936-1976)?  Did you 
know that Sweden is still a monarchy?  That should tell you 
something of issues that are less important in daily politics.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se