__/ [jjsavage@xxxxxxxxx] on Tuesday 07 February 2006 18:22 \__
> If everyone starts getting all their software for free, won't all
> programmers end up unemployed?
>
> - concerned CS major
>
http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/208/1
<snippet>
(Fallacy:) Free software is Communism. Free software promotes a gift economy
and is anti-capitalist. Free software will kill the software industry and
hurt the economy.
First let's examine free software. Basically it is software that you are
allowed to use, sell, distribute and modify in any way you see fit. Compare
that with proprietary software, which most often only allows you to use the
software on a limited basis ? no redistribution, sale, or modification of
the software is allowed. Actually it goes further than that; criminal and
civil penalties can be imposed on you for doing any of those things. It
would be more accurate to say that proprietary software is fascist rather
than suggest that free software is communist.
The "freeF in free software does not mean Ffree of charge;" it means "free of
restriction." That's free as in rights, not price. This is a point often
misunderstood or misrepresented by proprietary software CEOs and others who
have a proprietary software agenda to push.
That being said, free software is *often* also free of charge.
[...]
</snippet>
Hope this answers yours question,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz
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