Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)
To   : comp.programming
From : David Golden
Date : Tue Aug 30 2005 02:19 am

Gerry Quinn wrote:

> No more than it's unfair that a farmer should plant a 
> tree once and expect to own the apples every year thereafter.
> 

Should a farmer not be allowed plant the seeds of those apples (or more
likely make scions of the tree given the peculiarities of apple
propagation) from "his" tree to grow more trees because the guy he got
the tree from (or who "designed" the tree?!) has a "right" to forbid
it? 

Or not be allowed to sell scions or scions of that tree, or
whole scion+rootstock trees, matured at his own expense? 

Or be have the power to forbid those he sells scions to from making
further scions and selling them?

And should he be allowed forbid those he has sold apples to from
planting the apple seeds they harvest from their apples and [try to]
grow their own trees? And if they succeed, forbid them from selling
them, scions, or apples?

(Note that I do not hold that he should have to put his apples or scions
on sale in the first place, or that he should be forbidden from
irradiating the apples into sterility before sale...)

Once again, trumping and devaluing physical property rights.

.