Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)
To   : comp.programming
From : David Golden
Date : Sat Sep 17 2005 12:53 pm

Joe Butler wrote:

> Do you think someone should be allowed to come along and put that new
> fabric under the microscope and figure out how it worked and then make
> copies of
> that new fabric without having 

Well; he should have to pay for the fabric to analyse. But yes, of
course he should be free to do whatever he wants with it once he has
it, including analyse it for replication, learn from it, and pass
learning on to others.  

The fabric creator still has his knowledge, and is not being deprived of
his work.

(Remember also the fabric creator would be free to analyse anything of
he comes by; it is an unbelievably arrogant attitude on his part that
his paltry amount of additional information is worth more than all free
human knowledge already available to him. Hey, if you really want to
compensate creators over and above the free market, rather than handing
them monopolies that can be used to restrict others, give 'em free
internet connections. Only if you think all information is worthless
beyond exclusivity, which is plainly false, is that not enormous
compensation.)

> to pay for the privilage to do so?   

It's only a privilege if the law says it is.  The default is that the
operation of replication is unprivileged (at a basic level, it's one of
the least privileged operations there is - damn near any lifeform can
do it naturally, that's included in some people's definition of life).

> What on earth would have been the motivation to develop the fabric in
> the first instance

The fabric would exist and be useful to its creator and others.
You failure to conceive of that as a valid motivation is more
a reflection on you than anything else.

Those who desire to control others desire control over information flow,
and use "rewarding creators" as an EXCUSE to create that control.

> But
> instead I see that it actually generated a bit of a religious war.  I
> can now clearly see that the proponents of free software seem a bit
> overzealous.

Don't confuse me for a typical free software proponent. I think they're
a bunch of sissy moderates far too ready to compromise with those who
would restrict others.

.