Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on January 18, 2004 02:58 AM
Your car comparison is flawed. When you own a car you own a piece of hardware. But you are not allowed to create a copy of the car and give it to your neighbour. Properietary software is the same: you own the CD that you bought, but you are not allowed to copy it. The reason why copying cars is not a problem is that the process of copying is so difficult/expensive. But that may be different in a few centuries, when you have 3D plotters or other techniques that allow you to create physical things.
The unsolved problem is how to finance the *design*. Propertary software is a solution, but unfortunately imposes a lot of restrictions on the use of the software. Free software does not have a good model for many software categories yet. The problem is that those who profit from the software should pay for it. That works fine in some cases, like porting a compiler to a new CPU architecture. The CPU manufacturer pays for it, because they profit from the port. But what about a word processor? If a software product will be used by millions of people, how can you get them to pay for the development without the restrictions of proprietary software? This is the problem that needs to be solved.
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You do not own the car's IP
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 18, 2004 02:58 AMThe reason why copying cars is not a problem is that the process of copying is so difficult/expensive. But that may be different in a few centuries, when you have 3D plotters or other techniques that allow you to create physical things.
The unsolved problem is how to finance the *design*. Propertary software is a solution, but unfortunately imposes a lot of restrictions on the use of the software. Free software does not have a good model for many software categories yet. The problem is that those who profit from the software should pay for it. That works fine in some cases, like porting a compiler to a new CPU architecture. The CPU manufacturer pays for it, because they profit from the port. But what about a word processor? If a software product will be used by millions of people, how can you get them to pay for the development without the restrictions of proprietary software? This is the problem that needs to be solved.
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