Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 15:10:06 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>, Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, trevor@jpj.net (Trevor Johnson), freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Stallman now claims authorship of Linux Message-ID: <15071.17950.439066.927510@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20010419140150.045176b0@localhost> References: <200104191845.LAA17455@usr09.primenet.com> <15070.54826.847491.916792@guru.mired.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20010419140150.045176b0@localhost>
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Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> types: > At 01:15 PM 4/19/2001, Mike Meyer wrote: > > >> D) Being a paid support flunky for the software. > >> > >> E) Being a wage-slave for improvements to the software. > >> > >> F) Being paid a small amount for the initial developement > >> as a work for hire for the benefit of the GPL, such > >> that your wages need to be arbitrarily low, since your > >> wages can not be amortized. > >> > >> The GPL thus promotes amateurs in place of trained engineers, > >> unless you are willing to work until you die, and never be > >> able to retire as a result of rewards for your efforts. > > > >First, this means the GPL has the same effect as commercial software. > > Not true. Commercial software does not destroy markets or reduce > programmers to the status of wage slave. Try contracting for MicroSoft. > >Second, the working conditions you described apply to the vast > >majority of people in the US. Since many of them do manage to retire > >as a result of the rewards of their efforts, I'd say your final > >conclusion is false. > That is because, in other fields of endeavor, they can build > capital. One of the purposes of the GPL is to prevent the > creation of intellectual property as capital -- at least by > programmers. (The FSF, on the other hand, hoards intellectual > property; that's why it requires that all contributors to > sign their code over, lock, stock, and barrel. Not a bad > arrangement: the FSF gets richer and the programmers get > poorer.) You build capital as a programmer under conditions D, E and F the exact same way you do in all those other fields, working under those conditions. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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