🚀 go-pugleaf

mib@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell) writes:
> In article <iViHeB6w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (en font terrible)
>    Software is basically information; just as when you pay a plumber
>    to fix your bathroom, he gets to keep the information about how to
>    fix your bathroom and can sell that information to someone else as
>    well, so when you pay Microsoft to provide you with desktop
>    publishing capabilities, they get to keep the information about how
>    to make your computer do DTP and sell it to someone else.
> 
> When a plumber fixes my bathroom, I am free to watch, to take notes,
> to write books explaining the procedure, to tell all my friends how to
> do it, and even to go into competition.
> 
> When I buy a floppy from Microsoft to "instruct" my computer, I don't
> get to do any of these things.

No, but you get to watch the computer perform the task, just as you get
to watch the plumber perform the task.  You can take notes on how the
software behaves, write books explaining it, tell your friends how to
perform the same tasks with their software, even create your own competing
software product to do the same things.

You can't look at the source for the program, no. But then, you can't 
examine the books your plumber studied in order to get his knowledge. 
You can't demand access to whatever schools or teaching courses he 
attended.


mathew

-- 
Just another would-be Mac owner put off by Apple's monopolistic practices / If
you know where I can buy the CD "In Mysterious Ways" by John Foxx, please send
me email / Message for Kodak: Bring back Dan Bredy! / My PGP RSA public key is
available on request / Desperately seeking CD of "U2" by Negativland / 4 lines