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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!amd!vecpyr!lll-crg!seismo!uwvax!gumby!foust
From: foust@gumby.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: New ideas on software piracy... Flames welcome.
Message-ID: <419@gumby.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Jul-85 21:49:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: gumby.419
Posted: Sun Jul 28 21:49:07 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Aug-85 07:08:08 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 75


	I have this idea floating around in my head that I can't get 
rid of. Why can't information be free?

	I see the present system of software marketing as fading into 
the background, and that sooner or later, most computer software will 
be public domain or freeware.  I don't know if sales of software will 
drop significantly, but I think that future sales will be restricted 
to lemmings buying the latest version of Jazz, or to custom 
programming houses, while more informed users will use public domain 
stuff for most tasks.

	Public domain software is getting better and better.  Often, 
it comes with print-it-yourself documentation and source code.  The 
two PC programs I use most were free, (Kermit and CED) and they came 
with long, well-written manuals.  Most of the utilities I use are 
public domain, too.  Remember how all the old CP/M utilities migrated 
to PC-DOS?  Why won't this keep happening?  

	I know, Kermit was fostered in a university environment.  But 
I feel an evolution in software.  The compiler I use was purchased, 
but I have no doubt that someday, there will be freeware C compilers 
that will rival the ones for sale now.

	Since so many future software developers are cutting their 
teeth on systems with free access to Unix source, it seems hard to 
believe that they won't be using ideas and algorithms they saw while 
in school.  The next generation of public domain software will 
reflect this.  The net has already seen free micro versions of 
'make', and the Gnu Manifesto.  Whatever weird amalgam of altruism 
and socialism Richard Stallman (?) smokes, I bet he'll succeed in 
public domain Unix.

	Even the mighty Deathstar can't battle this kind of migration 
of ideas.  It seems kind of ironic, that the buddy-buddy relationship 
between corporations and universities might backfire in this way.

	Why shouldn't information be free?  Today, many forms are 
nearly free, like television.  Forget the ads.  Books are cheap. 
Plagiarism aside, you don't have to sign a non-disclosure agreement 
that says you won't use the ideas in the book, like you do with 
source code.

	I have strong capitalist beliefs, I know about patent law, I 
know about free-market theory and such, I used to be editorial editor 
of this campus's conservative newspaper.  I agree that people could 
sell the products of their labor.  By now, most net-people have heard 
these arguments.

	I do have doubts about the validity of copyrights and 
patents, and maybe that's where my disagreements lie.  It seems to me 
that ideas can't be protected by government, and that individuals can 
only protect ideas by improving upon them.  I can imagine an 
alternate theory of software piracy: I have a capital investment in 
hardware, and I buy the raw material of disks, so why can't I use my 
investment for my own use?  Let's pretend that I wasn't playing 
Singapore, and selling what I copy, but just backing things up.

	If I were to buy the arguments flying about the net, a 
software producer should really have nothing to fear from pirates if 
his product is a good one.  Is this only true if we have nice, strong 
agreements like the law recently proposed in California?

	Furthermore, I'd like to hear from more people who will admit 
to owning pirate software.  I was chastised by someone from the net 
in a private letter for admitting the same, in a recent discussion of 
dongles.  I'd really like to look at this guy's Flip-n-file.  I 
believe all those stats about pirated software, and have met only one 
person who refuses to accept pirated software.  Not that the masses 
have a corner on truth and morality, of course.  Oh, I know, this 
stuff belongs in net.philosophy.

-- 
John Foust
"I used to be disgusted, but now I'm just amused"