🚀 go-pugleaf

From Byte, April 1991, "Computing in the U.S.S.R.", by Igor Agamirzian,
writing on the decline of Soviet informatics and computer science:

"In developed countries, copyright laws protect the humanitarian as well
 as scientific and technological spheres.  In the U.S.S.R., the product
 of intellectual work does not belong to its author; it does not even
 belong to the organization within which it is developed.
   Unfortunately, this is one of the main reasons for our decline in
 these disciplines.  Why should we invest in products if we can obtain
 everything free?"

So, why will getting rid of copyrights and patents in the U.S. improve
the state of the art instead of leading to the decay of the software
industry like in the Soviet Union?

Will a company devote thousands or millions of dollars to develop new
programs if programmers are just going to clone the program as soon as
they are released?
-- 
Eric Dittman
Texas Instruments - Component Test Facility
dittman@skitzo.dseg.ti.com

Disclaimer:  I don't speak for Texas Instruments or the Component Test
             Facility.  I don't even speak for myself.