Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:13482 comp.sys.misc:1013 comp.sys.ibm.pc:10907 comp.sys.mac:11403 comp.sys.atari.st:7076
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nbires!hao!oddjob!mcb
From: mcb@oddjob.UChicago.EDU (He Who Passes Through Locked Doors)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Software (and other kinds of) copying
Message-ID: <14257@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>
Date: 21 Jan 88 02:31:11 GMT
References: <8055@g.ms.uky.edu> <174@piring.cwi.nl>
Reply-To: mcb@oddjob.uchicago.edu.UUCP (He Who Passes Through Locked Doors)
Organization: U of Chicago - Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lines: 26
Keywords: technology changes things

In article <174@piring.cwi.nl> jack@cwi.nl (Jack Jansen) writes:
>I hope this doesn't make me sound like a dogmatic Marxist (I am neither),
>but I still feel that capitalism is the problem: people want money back in
>return for their efforts, and aren't satisfied with fame or esteem or whatever
>else.

Very nice in principle, but:
	1) Do you have any idea how much work goes into even things like
	   games and utilities?  (10 man years for Falcon, God knows how much
	   for something like MPW).
	2) Have you ever tried to buy groceries with fame or esteem or whatever?

Writing good software is a full-time profession.  People not only won't, but
CAN'T do it if you don't pay them to.  Most people don't need support for
things like games and utilities- the only way to make money writing this kind
of software is to sell the software.  Copyright laws exist to allow people
who write such software to make a living doing so.  If the laws didn't exist,
neither would the software.
					-Matt


-- 
Matt Bamberger			"You think that because you understand _one_,
1005 E. 60th St., #346		 you understand _two_, because one and one
Chicago, IL 60637		 makes two.  But you must also understand
312-753-2261			 _and_."	-Sufi Master