Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:13249 comp.sys.misc:985 comp.sys.ibm.pc:10701 comp.sys.mac:11114 comp.sys.atari.st:6992
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!decvax!yale!Ram-Ashwin
From: Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram)
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
Keywords: technology changes things
Message-ID: <21754@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jan 88 15:33:54 GMT
References: <8055@g.ms.uky.edu> <174@piring.cwi.nl> <14257@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <6650@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Organization: Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Lines: 31
In-reply-to: mwm@eris (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer)

In article <6650@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, mwm@eris (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) writes:
> 
> [description of some great free software]
>
> No, copyright law - or lack thereof - isn't why software gets written.
> It gets written because people need it, or because they want it. All
> the copyright laws really do is restrict the distribution of the
> software once it gets written.

I think it's encouraging to see that some of the BEST software is free.  I
don't mean specialized applications software (e.g., CAD/CAM software), but
rather general tools and programming environment software that everyone
needs to do anything at all on their machines.  Mike already mentioned a
great operating system and the best editor [my opinion] in the world (GNU
Emacs); I could add --

- one of the best word processing systems (TeX)
- one of the best state-of-the-art languages (T/Scheme)

and lots of other public domain software that we all use.

I don't know if I agree that copyright laws restrict the distribution of
software though.  The GNU distribution is governed by those same laws, and
those laws have helped to ensure that the distribution remains free and
easily accessible to everyone (without random people making money off it).

-- Ashwin Ram --

ARPA:    Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu
UUCP:    {decvax,ucbvax,harvard,cmcl2,...}!yale!Ram-Ashwin
BITNET:  Ram@yalecs