Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!ukma!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber
From: webber@aramis.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Free Free Flow (was: Re: Intellectual property/copyrights)
Message-ID: 
Date: 4 Jul 88 09:56:29 GMT
References: <9160@cisunx.UUCP> <1801@uhccux.UUCP> <807@netxcom.UUCP> <1804@looking.UUCP>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 80

In article <1804@looking.UUCP>, brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
> It is often said, "I don't like copyrights because they interfere with
> the free flow of information."
>
> On the surface, that seems true, but you may want to consider that it is
> also highly likely that actually, the reverse is true.  If information
> can't be owned, that may be the greatest impediment to the creation and
> flow of *useful*, *valuable* information.

It is clear that things would take a bit longer, but like is there a
rush?  If the first 20 people who think up the idea of the spreadsheet
decide they are not going to go thru with it because once they make
one anyone could and they figure that they couldn't recover their development
costs, is it going to be the ruin of civilization?  Like we wait for the
21st person who not only has the idea but needs one enough to build it
for themself.  Then they pass it on as part of a barter for someone else's
software.  Maybe they make some money helping other people use the software.
Maybe they make some money thru consulting for a firm that specializes in
software maintenence.  The software is needed to make the computers useful.
It will get written, one way or another, sooner or later.  Gee, hardware
vendors might even give away development systems to people who give away
useful software for their machines.

> If one could not own the rights to "Star Wars" and charge admission to see
> it, would there ever have been a "Star Wars" or anything like it?  Clearly
> not, except it a complete totalitarian state where the government owns
> everything.

You will forgive me while I sit here and contemplate how nice it would
be if instead of Star Wars, Friday 13th part 99, etc., we only had movies
made by people who were in it for the joy of making movies.

> Even today, with the incentives, cheap I.P. like books need promotion,
> distribution, mechanisms of review and resellers.  Many very good books
> go nowhere if they aren't promoted.

Hmm.  Maybe they should stop trying to sell them and just post them to
the net.

>                                      Much good software dies and goes
> nowhere because of bad marketing.

Since there isn't even ``much'' good software, how can it die of bad
marketing?

> The fact is that even today we face information overload.  There's just
> too much chaff out there for us to find the wheat.  The most valuable
> I.P. needs the incentive of ownership to make somebody push it.

That just means that instead of lying peacefully on the ground, the chaff
is knocking on your door and doing cheap wheat imitations  --  thanks,
but no thanks.

> After all this, there's a third factor, namely stagnation.  Imagine
> the software world with the ownership of I.P. removed.  Say you write a
> better operating system, or spreadsheet.  Is it going to zoom out and
> replace what's there?  Hah.  If people didn't have to pay anything for
> Lotus 1-2-3, nobody would ever get the chance to give their product an
> edge through a lower price.  

You mean that the only way they could beat out lotus is to make a better
product.  Gee, shucks, wouldn't want them to have to do that.

>                           When people are constantly paying money for
> new 1-2-3s as they expand, it's hard enough to get them to switch.  If
> they can keep with the status quo for FREE, how easy will it be?

If they can change for free and if you are free to adopt the ``look and
feel'' of lotus to make it easier for them to change, how easy will it
be?

----- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)

[So, the net is going thru another round of copyright software discussion.
I wonder if weemba's automatic flame generator can handle insertion of
stock pro and con software copyright comments.  So why did you never
create comp.industry.copyright?  I never heard any serious objections
to the comp.industry.* bit -- you can't count the name arguements, the
net has never agreed on what is the best name for a group since the
beginning of time.]