🚀 go-pugleaf

In <Pine.LNX.3.96.981009163206.29062A-100000@welpc040.domgen.com> Jason Clifford <jason@ukpost.com> writes:

>Copying someone's work is not the issue as such. The issue is whether a
>software developer has the right to decide for himself whether or not to
>release his product source code and whether that developer should have the
>right to charge for his product.

This has never been the issue as far as I am concerned. The developer
has the perfect right to not do anything with what he has done-- to lock
it inot a safe if he so desires. He also has the right to sell it and
subject the purchaser to a trade secret non-disclosure agreement
(however by a standard contract, not this shrink wrap nonesense). They
are all rights the developer has and can retain. The question is how far
society should protect his control over copies if he does decide to
release to the public. That is what copyright covers.  That is what I
have been trying to discuss in my discussions. I think that society
should get a just return for its grant of monopoly rights over the
distribution of a work.