slehar@bucasd.bu.edu (Lehar) (12/03/89)
The issue of whether software should be free or restricted should not be a moral or ethical issue, but simply a pragmatic one. Software propagates in two modes, free dissemination and commercial sale. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. The free dissemination has the big advantage of being able to propagate at fantastic rates across networks like this one. It generally suffers (FSF excepted) from a tendancy to disorganized and uncoordinated growth leading to multitudes of incompatible copies each with it's particular strengths, but impossible to recombine with the other strains. Commercial sale has the big advantage of being immediately rewarding financially, thus allowing for the coordinated efforts of large groups of programmers to produce code conforming to a unified concept and adhering to compatability criteria. It suffers from the endless assaults of pirates, which requires ever more ingenious defense mechanisms which always serve to make the software less useful and practical. It also suffers from the necessity to monitor and account for usage in order to levy the proper fees, and it cannot be incorporated into other commercial code without passing along all the copyright encumberances of the component parts. Each of these methods of software propagation have their own best niches, and I am sure that all of us have at one time or another made use of each at the proper place and time. There is a natural balance between the two- if it were not for free software, the price of the commercial stuff would reach astronomical proportions and they would not be compelled by competition to reach such pinacles of excellence. On the other hand, if it were not for the commercial stuff, there would be no examples of large unified systems to act as an inspiration to the rest of us, to show us what can be achieved, and to raise our standards of expectation for software friendliness. There would also be no jobs for a lot of us! So I say, let each mode do it's own best thing, and "vive la difference!"