Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)
To   : comp.programming
From : gswork
Date : Thu Aug 25 2005 02:37 am


Arthur J. O'Dwyer wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Randy Howard wrote:
> [big snip]
>
>    You equate "illegal" and "immoral."
>
>    You equate "living comfortably" and "stealing from others."
>
>    I will not attempt to refute your bogus arguments any further.

i think, to summarise the ethical arguments:

The argument that programming closed source apps, and that closed
source apps in themselves, are 'evil' is enfeebled by the lack of
philosophical and practical argument in its favor - certainly in
comparison with murder.  It also lacks consistency in that the ethics,
once applied to programming, need also to be applied everywhere to test
the reasoning behind the position in differing contexts (and that's why
people keep bringing up painters, writers etc)

Otherwise it will just look like a loose opinion about software

you see that don't you?

.