Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!uhnix1!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Software, development & copyrights Message-ID: <5363@ficc.uu.net> Date: 30 Jul 89 16:23:53 GMT References: <26@ark1.nswc.navy.mil> <26778@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 46 In article <26778@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, mwm@eris.berkeley.edu (Mike (I'll think of something yet) Meyer) writes: > This is a false statement, the same one made by Peter. I make a living > out of programming (a quite nice one, I might add), and neither I nor > my employer copyright my programs to maintain rights to sell them. > Ditto for RMS. That, I'll accept. > Ditto for 90% of the programmers in the world. That, I won't. You're playing games with words. Just because the direct product of the company is not software doesn't mean they won't be hurt by the FSF copyleft. Most of the software in the world is sold as part of a system. It's not sold explicitly as a seperate product, but it's sold nevertheless. And free access to the sourtce code of this software would indeed hurt the company. Reverse engineering from object code is no substitute for the source. > Your world view (and Peter's) is for some reason warped. I've noticed > this tendency among people who are making a living as programmers > selling software. I make a living supporting other people who write software as part of a system that's sold to electric utility companies. Ferranti goes to some lengths to keep competitors away from the source to the system. I'd hate to see what would happen if CDC had free access to all our released source. > Well, the FSF uses the copyright laws to force people who use their > tools to follow their version of what the intellectual property laws > should be. I.e., RMS uses the copyleft to promote his Marxist programmer's utopia, because all his buddies left the MIT AI Lab for higher-paying jobs in the industry. He has said as much. > It's just that the FSF wants things to be best for society, When a man comes up to you with the intent of doing you good, run the other way. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. | "The sentence I am now Personal: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com. `-_-' | writing is the sentence Quote: Have you hugged your wolf today? 'U` | you are now reading"