🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1223@borax.kbss.bt.co.uk> dtynan@borax.kbss.bt.co.uk (Dermot Tynan) writes:
>mathew@mantis.co.uk (Lieutenant 030) writes:
>> 
>> If you approach a software author (because the program itself can't talk)
>> you'll almost certainly find that he is similarly willing to be paid some
>> hourly rate in return for which he'll explain exactly how his program does
>> what it does, so that you can go away and do what you like with that
>> knowledge.
>
>Get a life!  I challenge you to call up Ms. Programmer at Lotus Inc,
>and discuss with her the finer points of lotus.c, and see where it gets
>you, at any price!  

This is not at all true.  Remember that all these non-free companies
exist to make money -- there's always some price that will do the job.
If, for example, you wanted to know all about the internals of Sun's
software and and called me on the phone, I'd have to refer you to some
higher-ups, but those people would almost certainly be willing to give
me permission to talk to you, provided that you paid the price that
they quote.  You might not like the price, but (just like people who
don't like the use of the word "free" or the conditions imposed on
derived works by the GPL), that's your choice.

By the way, I've got no gripe with the FSF's use of the word free, nor
do I object to the conditions imposed by the license.  This makes much
of the GNU software inaccessible to me at work, but (as they say)
that's my choice -- just as I obey the GNU copyleft, I also obey the
little piece of paper that I signed when I came to work here.

David Chase
Sun