[Leaplist] Re: Microsoft Suggest Linux Hotmail Users Use Outlook Express (long)

[Phil Barnett]

On Monday 28 January 2008 10:38:30 am Sun State Martial Arts wrote:

> /semantics/, to me data is the code as it is what the software/code
> produces.  information is not.

Ok, let's talk about code we don't own and data that comes from it.

Let's take a simple program like Notepad. You start notepad and use it. You 
don't have the source. You write a novel, a recipe, a letter, a note. You 
save it.

The data is yours. If it saved it in a proprietary format, the data is still 
yours. It might be more difficult to have control of how you use the data, 
but there is no way that notepad or Microsoft owns the data.

Microsoft SQL server. You create a database and start adding data. The data 
belongs to you. no way does Microsoft own the data. If you lose it, it's not 
their fault. You should have had a backup.

Not owning the code does not mean you don't own the data. It means it may be 
more difficult to control how you access the data. Both of the above pieces 
of software adhere to standards. Standards that are not proprietary, so you 
can export your data in standard SQL 92 output and you can import it into 
MySQL or PostgreSQL. Or you can import your text files into Word Perfect, 
another proprietary piece of code.

No matter how it falls, you own your own data. You may not own it's ultimate 
destiny, but that is a choice you make.

And, legally, anything you create is automatically copyrighted in your name 
without you having to do anything. So, not only literally do you posess the 
data but you legally own it as well.

It's not a matter of semantics. Words mean things. Data is not code.