Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: A lot of stuff that's been happening lately
Message-ID: <1990Aug29.031131.14922@looking.on.ca>
Date: 29 Aug 90 03:11:31 GMT
References: <9008231949.AA04526@world.std.com>
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 19

You say a dark prediciton, Barry, but weren't you recently arguing that it
was about time that the standards of warranty and liability from other
industries started showing up in software?

That fame and adulation are the compensation for freeware, and that they
substitute for the cash is no idle comment.  It's true, and it's nothing
new to software.   People have done things for free all the time, and
often done well.  Consultants and gurus love to give free advice to the
press for the fame it brings them, for that fame means clients down the
road.

In Richard Stallman's world of no intellectual property, where
programmers are paid only for custom work, I would guess that much of the
free software generated would be generated to drum up such work.

If a doctor performs an operation as a charity case, they can still get
sued for malpractice, I think.   This is nothing new.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473