🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <39F84080.28C3F4E3@my-deja.com>,
  Angus McBastard <angusmcb@my-deja.com> wrote:
> seajays@my-deja.com wrote:
> >
>
> >
> > Actually I would suggest that the article is attempting to subvert
the
> > Universal Declaration of Human Rights by saying that it is OK to
> > breach article 27 part 2, which states:
> >
> > "Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material
> > interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic
> > production of which he is the author."
> >
>
> I don't think the article takes that angle at all. More like it would
be
> attempting to subvert what ever amounts to your personal
interpretation
> of the meaning of the word 'property'. I don't know how you can
> interpret a number or bitstream as property no matter how many
different
> legal definitions you might place on the artifact itself. The most
> interesting part to discuss however is the conclusion that proprietary
> methods of software production are inherently unstable in the long
term,
> not to mention resulting in inferior products, which in any other
> industry would leave the producers themselves liable for massive
> damages.
>
> Far from agreeing with everything said in the article, I do think
> however it raises issues which many of us in software have suspected
or
> known for some time were going to have to be faced. Remember
the 'Free'
> in 'Free Software' has no connection to the price whatsoever.
>
> Angus
>

A good point about Free software.  However, the ideals being put
forward simply will not work in our Western, economy driven, capitalist
society.  Corporations will simply want to take any advantage that they
can, and if source code was free, the larger corporations would simply
be able to squash any competition by using any code, from anywhere.
Even if a small company had produced something unique, any advantage
that that gave them in competing with the 'big boys' would vanish.  And
with it the small companies would vanish.  Far from helping creativity,
it would actually make it impossible for smaller companies to compete.

Now of course, if you're advocating changing the entire economic system
and eradicating capitalism, then it would be a different story - and I
may find myself supporting the argument for open source code.  :-)


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