On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 09:57 +1100, Ryan Heise wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2006 at 05:49:49PM -0500, Lee Revell wrote:
> > I hope you understand that there could be no "free software" without
> > copyright.
>
> Source code in the public domain is free software without copyright.
>
Correct. Most of it written by or for the US government. There is
a little in JAMin. What Lee was trying to point out, I believe, is that
free software that continues to be free and not taken over by a
proprietary company and improved and hidden from you is dependent upon
copyright. Would I, as a developer, release my code into the public
domain knowing that any company could take it, improve it, sell it, hide
it from me, and not give me credit for my work? I doubt it. What you
fail to realize is that copyright is not what keeps you from Micro$oft's
code, it is trade secret. Copyright only keeps you from legally making
a copy of it and not paying for it. If there were no copyright then
many software companies would not be in business. In some cases this
would be an improvement but in many others it wouldn't. There are
companies writing proprietary software that no one in the FOSS community
wants to touch. This is the real world not the ideal. Get over it.
--
Jan 'Evil Twin' Depner
The Fuzzy Dice
http://myweb.cableone.net/eviltwin69/fuzzy.html
"As we enjoy great advantages from the invention of others, we should be
glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and
this we should do freely and generously."
Benjamin Franklin, on declining patents offered by the governor of
Pennsylvania for his "Pennsylvania Fireplace", c. 1744
