You raise a good point about the history of copyright. It has taken a thorny path, especially in English‑speaking countries, notably the UK and the US. I suspect your negative view of the issue has been shaped by some early free‑software advocates in the US, who tended to conflate copyright issues with patent concerns. In fact, it's not surprising, given that the United States joined the Berne Convention only in the late 1980s. Their criticism of copyright often targets problems more typical for the patent system.
Before the Berne Convention, US copyright law rested mainly on the now‑outdated Buenos Aires Convention and the 1909 Copyright Act, which in many aspects resembled patent law procedurally. Unfortunately, the philosophical basis of the Berne Convention was widely misunderstood by early US influencers, and many myths about it still circulate in programming circles.
The European perspective on authors' rights, where the Berne Convention originated, differs markedly from the US legal tradition. European thinkers place moral rights at the center, whereas US lawmakers tend to focus on economic rights. Personally, I find the European approach more appealing. I hope this information clarifies my previous message.
All human rights exist only because a critical mass of nations with sufficient power are willing to follow some rules laid down in a few noble documents.
It does not matter how old these documents are or how much blood has been shed for them. If a critical mass with sufficient power does not agree with them, all these precious rights vanish into thin air.
Unfortunately, paper with rules written on it has no power whatsoever. Power comes from economic and military superiority.
Actually, there is a low interest to Rust in US. Major Rust crowd resides in Europe, based in posts in the forum and LinkedIn Rust job locations. China has own version of Rust though.
Interesting observation. From another perspective, I would expect Rust to be quite popular in some parts of the US (just a guess), given that their cryptocurrency industry is massive and they seem to like Rust a lot.
Where did you get stats that indicate that? I have only found conclusions like “United States has the largest concentration of Rust programmers, though it does not represent a majority of global users” Which we might expect given that most humans live outside the USA. Can’t find concrete numbers.
Thank you @anon75658756, it perfectly confirms my point I did just by analyzing demography of the forum. 70% of our posters are going from Europe. (I am getting 1-2 responses in US time zone, and 3-5 from European time)
That's not the correct reading; The above graph deliberately excludes Asia, Non-US America and other regions for the purpose of comparison. When these regions are included, only ~50% of participants are from Europe. Actual proportion is likely even lower, considering how one's English fluency affects the chance of discovering and completing the survey.
This is not meant to undersell US or Europe. Even after correcting for such factors, they remain a significant part of Rust users, in terms of influence if not also in raw number.
Perhaps if you speak Mandarin or Telugu, then you can consider other regions too. But for English speaking people, Europe is the best place to find a Rust job and apply your Rust skills.
May be true but we are not discussing Rust job opportunities here. Rather how Rust survives if the regime of its homeland turns its attention to such things. A valid concern given the events of recent months. All in all I’m inclined to think we are in good shape re: the continuing availability. of Rust. Might have concerns about its continued development in such circumstances though.
