Re: [LI] Re: DVD-ROM on Linux?

[Arun Sharma <adsharma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jan 04, 2000 at 08:02:56AM +0518, Manoj Victor Mathew wrote:
> 
> You develop an enhancement, free or non-free. If the enhancement is
> free, I can further extent and enhance it. The result? The average user
> get more choice.
> 
> But with a non-free enhancement, only you can extent it. But why should
> you, when people are willing to pay for the old enhancement? The user
> cannot get a extended version, unless you yourself give it to them.
>

In other words, it's all about money. The primary motivation for
denying freedom to look at source code is money. In other words,
free beer and free speech are closely related and not two distinct
concepts as portrayed by the GNU project.

> You take away my TV and I will be left with none. But you copy all my
> programs, I still have a copy. Please feel free to copy all my program
> ;-)

Some things take a lot of work to produce and very little time and
cost to copy. Who is going to compensate for the time and skill 
needed to produce those things ?

> > You are forgetting an important distinction here. The one between
> > the user and the developer. In the Linux world, they are roughly
> > equivalent. In the real world, there is a huge difference. The 
> > user doesn't care about freedom to benefit from ideas and such
> > abstract concepts.
> 
> That's why I feel, intellectual property as such deserves to be free;
> free as in the sense of freedom.

Then people are not motivated to produce more intellectual property,
as they can not benefit materially from their invention. This is a
fundamental concept on which much of the capitalist west is based on.
Greed is a powerful force.

> PS. Arun, would you like to have my personal .muttrc? It's free, free in
> the sense of freedom. I prefer to distribute my .muttrc for Rs 1000/-,
> but as a special offer, I can give it to you for Rs 0!!

Your .muttrc doesn't have a market. If it did and if people were 
willing to pay Rs 1000/- for it, by giving it to me for free, you
would have donated me Rs 1000/- and I would have probably sold it
to someone else for Rs 1000/- and bought some nice shoes. 

	-Arun