Am 28. Apr, 2002 schwätzte Tom Achtenberg so:

> Sorry, but after reading the first line of the "About Free Software"
> section, "Free software is a matter of freedom: people should be free to
> use software in all the ways that are socially useful. " I cannot buy into
> this "movement" The clear implication is they feel anything someone writes
> belongs to everyone, not the person who wrote it.  That is the very system

No, the copyright stays with the author or whoever the author designates as
the copyright holder. The use of the program, however, should be available
to everyone.

> that was tried and failed miserably in Easter Europe.  I do not and will

It's not at all communism. Communism is about taking away peoples freedoms.
So is a pure corporate economy. In a pure corporate economy everything
gravitates towards monopolies. It's the bully syndrom. The .us does not
operate on a pure corporate mechanism ( though the software market keeps
approaching that, especially with the gov't approved monopoly that m$ has ).

The .us continues to operate because of the millions of people who donate
time and money to charity. Whether that be holding a door open for someone
else or dedicating your life to volunteering in homeless shelters. All the
donations that flock in to help disaster relief is an example of that. So
are the homeless/battered women/runaway youth shelters.

I think it is that same charitable spirit that feeds Free Software. But by
working on Free Software we're helping ourselves as well.

> not buy into it in the least.  It is the same mentality that drove me away
> from the Libertarian party in the political world.  Under that system,
> there is no incentive to improve or excel.

It's true that some main incentives for improving Free Software are not
financial. That doesn't make Free Software bad. It's actually refreshing to
have social responsibility be considered a good thing.

That doesn't preclude a business making money on Free Software. The m$
monopoly is the greatest hurdle for companies trying to make money on Free
Software. Make m$ use and adhere to open standards without proprietary
extensions and Free Software will overrun them. They know it.

ciao,

der.hans
-- 
#  https://www.LuftHans.com/
#  Knowledge is useless unless it's shared. - der.hans