Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cuae2!ihnp4!ihdev!dlr From: dlr@ihdev.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.emacs Subject: Re: Swedish copyright laws Message-ID: <1082@ihdev.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Dec-86 19:34:57 EST Article-I.D.: ihdev.1082 Posted: Tue Dec 16 19:34:57 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Dec-86 22:49:57 EST References: <961981.861214.KFL@MX.LCS.MIT.EDU> <8612160134.AA08428@prep.ai.mit.edu> Reply-To: dlr@ihdev.UUCP (55224-D. L. Ritchey) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 92 The following is a gist of some of R M Stallman's article on "software ownership. The article is a collectivist diatribe against the very foundations of western democracies. Read on... . .ai.mit.edu> rms@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU ("Richard M. Stallman") writes: >... > >Why should all of us tolerate a practice where some people (software >"owners") pressure members of the public (software buyers) to promise >to refuse to cooperate with other members of the public? ... >... > Nobody >cooperates, nothing works as it is supposed to, and we all become poorer. >This is social decay. This is how the US is going. >... >Even if we decide, in the name of personally liberty, to tolerate such >activity on a small scale by individuals, we can still discourage it >on large scales through industrial regulations, and keep our personal >freedom intact. We can still raise the public consciousness as to >the wrongness of hoarding information and thus inspire a general >refusal of consumers to accept it. > >... ( The remainder of the article was deleted to surve the purge imposed by our newsposter that requires more new text than quoted text. ) I am appalled that the the author of this article would use his standing as (a/the) developer of one of the best known editors on this network to mount a political soap-box to post such a vituperative diatribe. Competition and pay for services is the foundation of democratic capitolist civilization. The call for "industrial regulation" goes completely again the desire for freedom of expression and creation that he urges we accept. The so-called "hoarding of information" and "wrongness" of someone selling software for a profit are what has produced much of the software used to operate and use the network we are now reading article from. If we deny the ability of people to create and sell software for a living, where are the talents of all of us reading the news here going go? I submit that we will all find ourselves seeking another trade and starving on the streetcorner. If someone does not work for "profit" and make enough at it to pay taxes on those profits, where are the governmental tax dollars going to come from to pay for the chosen few to write software. The idea that a government should decide what a product is worth, what it should cost, who shall be rewarded for it being produced, etc. are all hallmarks of communism. We all have read about how well the Soviet government manages its economy. Each of you who is old enough to be in college (or beyond) remembers (or should) the fiasco that was the Nixon era's Wage and Price Controls. Look at how well government regulation has strengthened our farms and agricultural states economies. Remember that the oil price fluctuations have been directly and indirectly caused by governmental (ours and others) manipulation of world markets. Do you want ALL software development managed by that group of "proven performers"? I do not argue with the place of public domain software. I do not want to interfere in Mr. Stallman's right to place his work in the public domain and refuse to let it be sold. I do not want to interfere in the altruism or other motives of people who produce excellent (or otherwise) products for the use by the public and encourage the copying or free distribution of those products. When, and if, I produce some program that has general usefulness on my free time, I will probably donate it to the net, after all I have gotten quite a few very nice and helpful products off of this network. But, and a very large but, I will resist with all my influence the idea that we should each be producing all our software free and for public use and expecting the government to pay us for our daily bread. That way lies stifling government regulation and total loss of individual liberty and creativeness. Do you trust some government bureaucrat to recognize your worth as a programmer, writer, or any other profession? D. L. Ritchey (Don) AT&T Bell Labs IH 6h-313 Naperville, IL (312) 979-6179 -- D. L. Ritchey (Don) AT&T Bell Labs IH 6h-313 Naperville, IL (312) 979-6179