*countable infinities only

[Andrew Haley]

On 06/19/2012 03:45 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
> I would claim that the moral right to run whatever software we wish on 
> hardware we own is a negative right; it doesn't put any obligation on 
> another party to help you do it.  If you can hack up Fedora to run on a 
> Nokia Windows phone, more power to you, but Nokia and Microsoft aren't 
> obligated to help you do it, and aren't legally prohibited from doing 
> things that make it difficult for you to exercise your moral right.

I think I'd disagree with you there.  I don't think it's any different
from someone using extensive technical measures to prevent anyone
other than the authorized dealers of a particular car from servicing
it.  Such a move would be treated as anti-competitive in many countries,
and IMO software should be treated in the same way.

> Possibly in this example someone might consider Nokia and Microsoft to 
> be infringing their moral right, but (in the US at least) they'd have no 
> recourse.

Indeed.

Andrew.