Tell them, my song.

Just a quick comment for the record:

Some Open Source fanatics have always spread the FUD that developers should not use Mono because Microsoft could club their projects and products with their patents for C# and .NET. After Sun put most of Java under the GPL, those very same people in their infinite wisdom advised developers to use Java instead.

And now we see Oracle suing Google for patent infringements over Java.

Isn’t that ironic?

Open Source does not protect anybody from patent lawsuits. Patents are there to protect ideas and concepts, while copyright laws protect specific implementations and products. So even if a product is made available under an Open Source license, that does not keep you out of harm’s way when your precious Open Source product infringes on somebody else’s patents.

(As a reminder, that’s what ridiculed the “Show us the source!” campaign that some folks were running against Microsoft a couple of years ago — they simply didn’t know what they were talking about. Microsoft was talking about patent infringements and the folks behind the campaign had trivial copyright infringements in mind. Two different pairs of shoes. You don’t need to copy source code in order to infringe on a patent. You just need to write your OWN implementation of a patented IDEA or CONCEPT. Do you get it?)

Here’s my advice: Use Mono instead of Java. Microsoft made sufficient promises in the past not to run around with a patent club against Mono, and Novell made sufficient promises to protect their customers against such patent lawsuits. When you use Java, you don’t have either.

The very same fraction that says “I’ve got nothing to hide” when the so-called authorities install surveillance cameras everywhere now all of a sudden has an issue with Google Streetview.

What’s behind this schizophrenic attitude? Are we afraid of our government, but we’re not afraid of Google because that’s just a company and we’ll show them who’s the boss?

Is it just the different quantity of people that now have an opportunity to watch us? Everybody can connect to the Internet and take a look at your house. But it’s just a couple of thousand anonymous, faceless persons that are getting paid to watch you. But does the quantity make a difference? I doubt it.

I say this: The folks “who have nothing to hide” should just shut up. If it’s okay for you if somebody you don’t know watches every step you make via “official” surveillance cameras, then it does not make the slightest difference for you if the rest of the world can also see your home in the Internet. After all, you’ve got nothing to hide, and in theory all these people could just take a stroll down your road anyway.

Those who value privacy as an essential foundation of Freedom, however, will have serious concerns about both the surveillance cameras run by their government and Google Streetview. Both are significant intrusions into our privacy, and neither should be tolerated.