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From: liberte@uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: Swedish copyright laws
Message-ID: <165400009@uiucdcsb>
Date: Thu, 18-Dec-86 20:28:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.165400009
Posted: Thu Dec 18 20:28:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 03:17:35 EST
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Nf-From: uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu!liberte    Dec 18 19:28:00 1986


Some clarifications are in order.

GNU Emacs is not public domain.  It is free and constrained to be
free.  In fact, the Free Software Foundation is attempting to
control future actions of the users of their software, perhaps
regrettably.

Democracy and capitalism are not identical.  Democracy is a political
system, capitalism an economic system.  They tend to go together, but
dont have to.  In fact, the U.S.  espouses democracy while often
promoting dictatorships which support capitalism.  

I will post a longer note to talk.politics.theory discussing these
issues in more detail.  Below is the more relevant part on
information.


-------------------------------------

Back to the issue of the ownership and control of information.  This should
be distinguished from the sale of information.  Information is a strange
thing since it is non-material and costs hardly anything to copy.  But
the creators of information need to recover their research and development
costs and need to be rewarded in proportion to the market value of the product.

Thus, I defend the right of software companies to charge for their software,
perhaps on a sliding scale based on the number of sales.  This is essentially
what the "free market" system does by allowing companies to charge what the
market will bear.  But there has to be a competing company to drive the
price down as more sales are made.  However, with competition we also get
the cut-throat practices, the wastefulness of redundant research, and the
shoddy products that reduce us to barbarians.

In the future, as more and more of what is traded will be information,
it will become ever more important that fair trade policies be
established for this information commodity.  Information should become
cheap and it will sell more easily.  When information is used for the
development of other products, royalties should go to the creator
of the information.  Therefore, getting a program source should be relatively
inexpensive, but if that source is used in another product, accrued 
royalties may equal or exceed the alternative one-time payment, and will
pay for the source in proportion to its lasting value.

To ensure that this system works, the sale of information and other products
would have to be regulated.  Such regulation and control by the government
amounts to ownership by the government.  If the government is truly
"of the people" then the abuses of government will be minimized.
People fear government mostly because their experiences have been bad.
Education is the key to successful participatory democracy.


Daniel LaLiberte   217-333-8740
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Department of Computer Science
1304 W Springfield
Urbana, IL  61801

liberte@b.cs.uiuc.edu
liberte@uiuc.csnet
ihnp4!uiucdcs!liberte

{ moderation in all things - including moderation }