FoxPro & Wine :)

Dimitrie O. Paun dimi at
Tue Apr 22 11:52:54 CDT 2003

On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, Patrik Stridvall wrote:

> Very, very simplified. You have basicly have two choices:
> 1. Distribute your work (or part of it) for free
> 2. Distribute your work (or part of it) for a fee.

Says who? Why would you think price is *the* fundamental feature?
Copyright law gives you rights (by restricting other's rights)
so that you could use them, if you so desire, to get some money
for your work. Copyleft just says you give up some of your rights,
EULA restricts. Which is fine, but within limits -- it's much
harder (legally) to take from people than to give.

As I said, why would we want to give the manufacturer of a TV set
the right to tell me what programs I'm allowed to watch on my TV?
Or what brand of gas to put in my car. Or what brand of detergent
in my washing machine?

Having generally accepted interfaces (steering wheel, pedals, and
stick for a car, gas of certain octane, etc) is good because it
allows for multiple implementations == competition. But this works
as long as you can't restrict what *implementations* you're allowed
to use. I don't know my histroy right, but I believe this sort of
restrictions (among other things) allowed Rockefeller to build his
Standard Oil monopolistic empire, and is now illegal.


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