🚀 go-pugleaf

From david@cs.washington.edu (David Callahan):
> Hardware components are sold by the piece after the piece 
> has been selected. Given the almost negligible cost of replication 
> of software will this be a viable mechanism for software components?

    Yes, software components are licensed to users just like other 
    software products, whose unauthorized replication is just as easy.

> Large libraries are often funded by public or not-for-profit
> organizations so cost recovery is not a problem. Will the government
> step in and create a National Software Library? 

    The government is working very hard on exactly this problem;
    lots of STARS research is going into the technical issues involved.

> How will we set the prices for software components in this 
> not-really-a-market situation?

    Perhaps in a way which is similar to the Swedish method of
    compensating authors for the use which is made of their books
    at a library; each time the book is checked out, the author gets
    some compensation, and checks are written at suitable intervals.

> Would foreign companies/individuals have access to our National
> Software Library?

    International agreements could perhaps be worked out, although
    right now the Government is imposing delays upon the export of
    lots of Ada software under the Export Controls legislation which
    deals with attempts to export advanced technology.

> Will large corporations develop proprietary libraries that are used to
> a competitive advantage over smaller companies?

    Certainly, although there is also an incentive to market the
    contents immediately as soon as the domain begins to be probed
    by commercial suppliers; by then licensing the product to some 
    commercial supplier, the company can still make money even as
    its competitive advantage is (inevitably) being lost with respect
    to that particular product. 

> Are software components intellectual property? While you could clearly
> copyright a particular implementation of a an ADT, it seems unlikely
> (and I'll venture undesirable as public policy) to allow someone to
> patent an "abstract" data type. 

    There's no copyright on the idea, only on the implementing source code.

    As an example, the Booch components described in "Software Components
    with Ada" are marketed by Wizard Software.  The Ada specifications are
    not copyrighted, but the copyrighted Ada implementations are sent on a
    separate tape, whereby the unwrapping of the tape has legal implications
    with regard to the granting of the license to use it, et cetera.  


    Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu