[Flameancer]

That seems like a sure fire way to hamstring your country. Does that also include firmware for devices? Will this government have a large dev team to make software that its populace can use? Would you install trackers and block the internet in general so citizens can’t get software that’s open source. Would you demand visitors to surrender their devices while visiting so the authorities can check for non-free software installed?

[cturner]

These are fair criticisms of the proposal. A similar but more workable path would be a constitutional clause to 1. limit the concept of property to scarce goods and 2. outlaw the creation of legal mechanisms like copyright.

[9dev]

We tried something similar once. It broke down quickly, led to the rich owning everything, required a surveillance nightmare to function, and left a permanent scar on the world. I don’t think we should in engage this idea again.

[eimrine]

We did not try mass refusal of defective by design technologies since Clair Patterson.

[cturner]

I do not understand your point. (or maybe you did not understand mine)

[9dev]

> limit the concept of property to scarce goods

This is a very powerful yet very dangerous train of thought. Modifications to the concept of property were at the heart of the way communism has been implemented in the USSR, and it led to awful results.

You might have a different goal in mind, but so did many of those involved in the October revolution.

[cturner]

There is no analogy between (strengthening scarce-property rights) and (communism). There is no analogy between (preventing copyright) and (communism).

[9dev]

You did not say strengthen scarce-property rights; you mentioned abolishing property rights for things other than scarce goods.

[chownie]

These things don't relate to one another in any meaningful way, it's like telling people to be wary of marching in sync because the Nazis did it.

[9dev]

That isn't a good analogy. A more apt comparison would be saying it's like being wary of legislation that enables punishment for government workers that step out of line, because that's one of the things that the Nazis did which absolutely leads down a slippery slope.

Revoking the right to own things and transforming almost all private property to public goods is an extreme measure and almost certainly leads to some kind of fascist regime to enforce and maintain it.

[eimrine]

> Does that also include firmware for devices? Will this government have a large dev team to make software that its populace can use?

The law I proposed has to be working against governments and semi-government institution such as banks, not about random Joes.

The firmware question is interesting, because there is no such thing as FLOSS hardware except of some low-end microcontrollers, thank you for noticing.

The most decent way of achieving this state seems like to prohibit only import of new devices and don't even bother about user's ones or anything second-hand. I have an observation that if you have 2 identical laptops but one with Nvidia/Amd and one with Intel HD then the former laptop will die naturally, such as any laptop with Ati today, while the latter laptop keeps serving until the physical death. You can install Ati driver for Windows 7 but can not for Windows 8 and never; also proprietary Ati driver fails to work with modern Linux stack while free Ati driver uses to much energy to consider the device as a laptop. This is an example of natural death of proprietary hardware/software, just stop import new proprietary devices.

Any authorities checking user devices for anything is a way of tyranny/authoritarism/totalitarism, nowadays the governmenns are working into totally another way, elusive to see for us the adults. In XXI governments use to propagate this or that ideas in schools. Teach them to have their fun and games in GNU/Linux distros and prohibit teachers to propagate Microsoft, Zoom, Viber, Google without restricting usage of these service for leisure. When the proprietary devices will start begging to buy a new hardware but it will not be available inside of the country then we will found ourselves in a new world.

> Will this government have a large dev team to make software that its populace can use?

There is no such thing in XXI as an independed government without a large dev team.

[bambax]

Like the original article explains well, the question isn't technical, it's legal. You don't have to inspect users' devices if you make selling licences illegal, because then nobody can legally make money selling them.