Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 23:12:12 -0700 From: Arun Sharma <adsharma@sharmas.dhs.org> To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why are people against GNU? WAS Re: 5.0 already? Message-ID: <200005140612.XAA17820@sharmas.dhs.org> In-Reply-To: <20000514104553.A28453@physics.iisc.ernet.in> References: <003b01bfbcdc$6059fb40$a164aad0@kickme> <391D71FE.1570F551@asme.org> <20000513205610.A22103@physics.iisc.ernet.in> <3.0.6.32.20000513143506.00895650@mail85.pair.com> <20000514010614.A16058@happy.checkpoint.com> <391DDB3E.8DFFD8D0@mindspring.com> <20000514041848.K22405@physics.iisc.ernet.in> <3.0.6.32.20000513181415.00890300@mail85.pair.com> <20000514051809.N22405@physics.iisc.ernet.in> <3.0.6.32.20000513194018.00898d80@mail85.pair.com> <20000514104553.A28453@physics.iisc.ernet.in>
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In muc.lists.freebsd.chat, you wrote: > It's interesting that shortly after this free-software argument, I > find an article by John Perry Barlow (Grateful Dead lyricist and EFF > co-founder) giving his opinion about Napster and copying of music: > http://technocrat.net/958163435 > In particular, I think this quote could apply equally to the software > industry. > > While scarcity may increase the value of physical > goods, such as CD's, the opposite applies to information. In a > dematerialized information economy, there is an equally strong > relationship between familiarity and value. If your work is good, > allowing what you've done to self-replicate freely increases demand > for what you haven't done yet... Even Microsoft knows about this. Give away IE to increase demand for other Microsoft software. But in a capitalist economy, free flow of information is not an end in itself - it's the means to an end - generating more revenue. Here's my free speech/freedom argument from a programmer's perspective: Programmers should have unrestricted freedom to pursue material comforts. Giving away software is not incompatible with this freedom. What the BSD's need to do to divert programmer mindshare away from the popular GPL theme, is effective delivery of the above message. -Arun To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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