🚀 go-pugleaf

mib@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell) writes:
> In article <ZL4ueB47w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (Lieutenant 030) 
>    Right, but reading the software source is equivalent to letting you 
>    sift through the plumber's brain. It's looking at the knowledge and 
>    instructions which allow the agent (plumber or software package) to 
>    perform its task. The plumber won't let you do that, so by your own 
>    argument presumably there isn't a free market in plumbing.
> 
> Oh, come on.  If I "pick my plumber's brain", it takes her time.  Of
> course, if I'm willing to pay her for the time, then so be it.  Every
> plumber I've ever met has been more than willing to explain the
> procedure used (I'm interested in such things) and would doubtless be
> willing to play tiddlywinks for $40 an hour.  Most plumbers are
> interested in plumbing, and are happy to talk about their profession
> to interested parties, particularly if they are paid $40 an hour.
> 
> And, once I do this, my plumber has no control over what she told me.
> I can distribute what I have learned in any way I see fit.

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.

The difference is that he'll charge a larger hourly rate than your plumber.

> Now, when I pay a software company for the privilege of using their
> software, I *don't* get to do any of those things.

Right. Because that's not what you paid for. If you hired a plumber to
fix your sink and then said to her "Right, now you're here you're 
going to teach me to be a plumber so that I can go and do plumbing 
jobs for other people" I suspect said plumber would very quickly tell 
you where to get off.

>                                                    And, even more, it
> doesn't cost the software company *anything* for me to pore over their
> code and figure it out, while it *does* cost my plumber something to
> sit there and listen to dumb questions.

It wouldn't cost your plumber anything to let you pore over her training
manuals, borrow her tools (when she's not using them), and so on.  That
doesn't mean it's reasonable for you to demand the right to do so simply
because you've paid her to fix your sink.


mathew

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 computer programmers, hippies and most Americans"
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