🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 3 Oct 1998 01:17:06 +0100, Jason Clifford
<jason@dlsl.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>In article <87d88asml4.fsf@ivm.de>, Klaus Schilling
><Klaus.Schilling@home.ivm.de> writes
>
>>This is all satanistic propaganda of capitalistic bastards who need to be
>>mentally wiped from the face of the universe. Those people like Gates don't
>>need to be called humans, but beasts is appropriate. Gates and his fellow
>>proprietarists are like ferocious beasts and excluded from any truth.
>
>Look everyone. Klaus is showing his true colours.
>
>Because Klaus does not like someones that person is not a human and i is
>therefore entirely proper for that person to be 'wiped from the face of
>the universe'
>
>Sounds like something from recent history.
>-- 
>Jason Clifford

My thoughts exactly.  I think someone in germany in the mid 1930's had
similar ideas.

imho, capitalism is neither good nor evil.  it really doesn't exist at
all, because it's not an economic system imposed on a society by a
government, it's really characterized more by the absence of controls
than anything else.  its kernal, if you like, is freedom of contract.

the danger of capitalism is its potential for abuse.  government's
role, is to protect against the abuse.

the limited monopoly granted to creators by the copyright and patent
laws are limitations on capitalism.

I don't believe the legislature and the courts have yet struck the
proper balance between protecting the legitimate expectations that the
author of software should be rewarded for his work, and the harm
caused by any type of monopoly.  this is all very new for the courts.
20 years ago, this did not even exist.  by comparison, our laws
regarding torts, contracts, crimes, etc., have evolved over hundreds
of years.

these are actually very complex issues and don't really lend
themselves to one or two sentence solutions, such as kill all the
bastards.  you can kill them, but then who will dare to write code and
release it to the public?   Software distribution would be reduced to
two sources:  official government software written by civil servants
(you think MS is bad, just imagine an operating system brought to you
by the people who run the post office) or an underground black market.

I believe the tide has turned against microsoft.  don't expect to see
a humiliated and repentant Bill Gates asking for forgiveness from the
american people anytime soon, however.  He has amassed a personal
fortune that will last for generations to come (especially if he and
his progeny reproduce so inefficiently), and it doesn't really matter
what happens to MS.  By analogy, when the government broke up Standard
Oil, Rockefeller became even wealthier than he had been.

If there's any punishment that's appropriate for Gates, it would be to
make him spend three hours a day surfing the net using a winmodem
connected at 33.2 kps.