Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!claris!peirce
From: peirce@claris.com (Michael Peirce)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: reinventing the wheel (was Re: Software Tax: how and why?)
Message-ID: <10511@claris.com>
Date: 24 Aug 89 00:54:37 GMT
References: <3674@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <NELSON.89Aug15224611@sun.clarkson.edu> <4811@omepd.UUCP> <12439@s.ms.uky.edu> <JES.89Aug21160815@mbio.med.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: peirce@claris.com (Michael Peirce)
Organization: Claris Corporation, Santa Clara CA
Lines: 24

In article <JES.89Aug21160815@mbio.med.upenn.edu> jes@mbio.med.upenn.edu (Joe Smith) writes:
>
>> Software development subsidy seems to be an idea that is getting more
>> and more support.
>
>Maybe free software should be like our highways: no one would suggest
>that they are 'free of cost', but everyone is free to use them as they
>see fit, as long as it doesn't stop others from doing the same.
>Society (at some level) assumes the cost of creating/maintaining them
>since 'freedom of use' is crucial to productivity.
>
> Joe Smith
> University of Pennsylvania                    jes@mbio.med.upenn.edu

Humm, interesting analogy.  Except that people aren't free to use the
highways as they see fit.  The State licences drivers, vehicles, and
charges use taxes.  They even have special police forces to enforce
rules.

I can see it now.  First I'll get my computer license, then my users permit,
they every time I fire up some software I'll have my credit card billed
for maintenance fees!  Sounds like nirvana to me...

-- michael peirce, for profit software developer