Re: Signatories to the Declaration of Software Freedom

[Arun Sharma <arun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Mar 01, 2001 at 08:07:08PM +0530, Raju Mathur wrote:
> *Yawn* Do let me know when you've figured out the difference between
> free speech and free beer, Arun.

That's a two year old marketing campaign, that's lost its froth, Raju. People
have figured out that free software has nothing to do with free speech or
the freedom declaration. The freedom you're asking for is to get hold of
someone else's property for no money.

I'd compare RMS style free software to a big tank of free beer (probably
a good one), that RMS creates out of his copious amount of free time, using
the various funds that he has access to (from people who believe that beer
should really be free) and then RMS would claim that all beer should be free,
and that drinking beer is a "human right", which trumps "intellectual property
rights". Anyone in their sane mind would see the BS in that argument, but 
perhaps some have had too much RMS beer :)

The key word is "balance". As an MS developer (Jacob ?) was talking about RMS
vs Allchin - everyone knows that ultra-closed (Mid 90s MS style) is harmful
to industry innovation and communist style RMS philosophy (no IP) is equally
harmful. I'm arguing that balance is in BSD style - "copy center" philosophy. 

Consider that GNU software is not used by 95% of the computer using population.
The BSD software that MS reused (if you believe the legend) is being used
by a lot more people.

I know, how much ever I rant here on the lists, I'm not going to get as much
coverage as RMS or his co-practitioners. Why ? Because I didn't write gcc or
emacs. Time to write bcc and bemacs that MS can ship on their CD ?

	-Arun