Kelsey Bjarnason <kbjarnason@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> [snips]
>
> On Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:14:58 -0500, George Barca wrote:
>
>> Bad choice of words. What I meant was that the only way the give it all
>> away free system works is if everyone is doing it. Look at free software
>> for example.
>> Some person sits at home nights and weekends writing a CD burning
>> program and then gives away the source for others to use. Now Dell comes
>> along and packages it as part of pre-installed Linux on a system and
>> makes a profit.
>> I personally think the person is an idiot and if the program was good
>> enough he should protect it and sell it commercially. However if
>> everyone was just using the program and giving it away, like the author
>> did, then it wouldn't matter. The problem arises when some make money
>> off the work of others.
>
> Why is he an idiot, and why is someone else making money off it a problem?
>
> You need to stop and realize that people write software for essentially
> two reasons. One of those is to get a reward - fame, cash, what have
> you. The other is simply to solve a problem, or accomplish some task, or
> simply do so better than existing options.
You missed the "job of work".
And no "reward and fame or what have you" does not cover that.
And no one wants seom free loader stealing their work when they need to
make money from that work.
The Government pays for many people to study CS at University. They
expect income taxes back.
>
> Suppose I write, as you suggest, a better CD burning program (better than
> K3B? Yeah, right!) The question becomes *why* did I write it? If I
> wrote it for money, then chances are I wouldn't be distributing it as an
> open source project. If I just wanted a CD burning app which did
Aha. So you agree OSS licensing can not work if you want to make money
because people will simply steal the code and your ideas.
Glad we got that one sorted out.
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