Re: VAX software available for download

From: Michael Kraemer (m.kraemer_at_gsi.de)
Date: 06/28/05 

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:04:42 +0000 (UTC)

In article <3iahqoFkj28jU1@individual.net>, bill@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes:
> In article <W-CdnUCahLNZViLfRVn-jA@rcn.net>,
> jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
> >
> > It looks like there is a bug. The dotcom generation has not been
> > trained in the consequences of stealing. Read some of the long
> > discussions on game newsgroups about this subject. There are
> > a growing number of people who have absolutely no idea how
> > hard/software products are made.
>
> You can lay a major part of the blame for this at the feet of
> one of todays computer subculture heroes, Richard Stallman.
> "I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a
> program I must share it with other people who like it.
> Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them,
> making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse
> to break solidarity with other users in this way. I cannot
> in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a
> software license agreement."
>
> From this we got the Gnu Public Virus and the idea that there is
> no inherent value in programs and so they can be given away at
> will. All this because he was too stupid to know what the term
> "Public Domain" meant when he first gave away the code to his early
> version of EMACS.
>
> If you draw the conclusion fromt he above that I don't think much of
> Stallman, you would be right. I feel he has done more to damage the
> software world than anyone else. (Oh yeah, and he didn't invent the
> idea of "software sharing" mod.sources was created in 1983 and that
> was just to formalize what had already been going on.)
>

this sounds more like a personal feud with Mr. Stallman
than a rational line of reasoning, and, as shown at several
occasions, shows an exaggerated obsession with IP, IMHO.
The idea of Stallman was/is to share common knowledge with others,
and that it's not a good idea to claim exclusive rights to ideas, algorithms, etc.
And he doesn't say that you should not be able to earn money with
software development, it's just the source code that should be free
to others e.g. to learn from it. You still can compile/package/distribute/teach
or add other value based on free source code, like the whole Linux world does.
Of course profits wouldn't be sky-high, but who needs another M$ ?
And don't forget the educational aspects: free software made avalailable
to people to learn from it or even improve it on their own is probably
better than lame classroom or textbook examples.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: VAX software available for download
    ... >> trained in the consequences of stealing. ... > one of todays computer subculture heroes, Richard Stallman. ... > software license agreement." ... or add other value based on free source code, like the whole Linux world does. ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: *plonk*
    ... minions that think source code somehow has human rights. ... I _could_ clue you in that it is the user's rights about which ... Stallman is talking. ...
    (comp.lang.functional)
  • Re: *plonk*
    ... minions that think source code somehow has human rights. ... Stallman is talking. ... It's about source code itself that has human rights. ... any more than freeing a slave is theft (which is what the slave owner ...
    (comp.lang.functional)