Xref: utzoo alt.religion.computers:1235 gnu.misc.discuss:660 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!wuarchive!texbell!nuchat!sugar!peter From: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: alt.religion.computers,gnu.misc.discuss Subject: Re: The meaning of life, as it relates to hacking. Message-ID: <4823@sugar.hackercorp.com> Date: 24 Dec 89 04:09:02 GMT References: <4639@sugar.hackercorp.com> <4ZW1ijS00WBKE1qh5C@andrew.cmu.edu> Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston Lines: 86 In article , jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon Allen Boone) writes: > b) most ordinary people i know are not concerned with intellectual > property rights - rather they are concerned with the economic gains > that they derive from intellectual property rights So am I. But not the way you mean. Hold on. > - ie. they sell > those rights Not necessarily. Most people are quite capable of looking at something that's complex and valuable to them and realising that it wouldn't exist if the author wasn't compensated. The reaction I get from most people when I tell them that the Soviet Union considers Asimov a national hero but refuses to pay him royalties on sales bears that out. > - thus, if they could be shown how to make the same gains > and do without intellectual property rights, then i have utter > confindence that they would. You're missing a stage here. The hidden assumption that such is possible. > the general population struggles harder > and harder every day in order to get more and more laws passed to > steal others' rights from them I presume you're talking about the war on drugs. > - dont' think that intellectual > property rights are any different - i think that only intellectuals > and supposed intellectuals are concerned with intellectual property > rights. Anyone who understands the market system, too... > nope. i'd be just peachy keen if they sold the software for $50 or > $5... i don't *want* the source to . OK, you're a new variety. You defend the FSF without believing in the same things they do. RMS is more interested in making the source available than how much you charge for the binaries. Under the GPL you can sell a binary for anything you can get for it so long as you give the source away. > secondly, if i can convince people to spend $1000000 on my college > education every year should i? Just because you *can* take advantage > of people doesn't mean that you *should*. If someone gets $1000000 of value out of you spending a year in college, why not? Nobody *has* to buy Lotus 1-2-3 for $500. They can always buy Vip Professional for on the order of $100, or SC for the cost of a floppy. > That's too bad. I guess that we'll never see any pd real-time systems > with the name peter da silva on them any time soon - guess i'll stop > holding my breath. You won't see any PD realtime systems with *anyone's* name on it. Actually, come to think of it, I wrote a polled multitasker for Forth that should be usable for realtime work. Took all of 48 lines of code. > look peter, if you don't want to, then don't. > however, while i might be daunted to start one from scrath, if there > was source available....pd source...i might be more likely to > try...even if i did have to give away the source (provided i > distribute it). I'll dig it up and let you do the other 95% of the work. > > You ever worked on control software? Accounting software? > Yes i've worked on accounting software....did i get paid....? well, > i did get a free lunch (aprox. $7 value) for the entire days work. Hardly sounds like a serious effort. > > Don't condemn a man 'till you've walked a mile in his shoes. > I don't condemn you or anyone else. It does seem that you condemn > rms, and i don't know if you have even tried on his shoes.... I condemn paragraph 2b of the GPL. As I understand it he's the one responsible for that. I find his motives laudable when it comes to writing code, but his attempts to use the force of the state to impose his morals on others are despicable. -- Peter "Have you hugged your wolf today" da Silva `-_-' 'U` "I haven't lost my mind, it's backed up on tape somewhere"