[OT] What is Open Source? (fwd)

[holger krekel]

David Mertz, Ph.D. wrote:
> |mertz at gnosis.cx (David Mertz, Ph.D.) writes:
> |> The only problem with this belief is that it is completely, totally,
> |> 100% wrong.  A copyright is, quite simply, a legally enforced artificial
> |> monopoly--not a contract.  These are quite different things.
> 
> Paul Rubin <phr-n2002b at NOSPAMnightsong.com> wrote previously:
> |I think Clark was using contract in a metaphorical sense, describing a
> |deal made with authors on one side, and society as a whole on the
> |other.  In what's called the "copyright bargain", society agrees to
> |grant limited temporary monopolies, in exchange for increased
> |"progress in science and the useful arts".
> 
> Well...  I suppose Clark's use is a metaphor.  But it is an extremely
> *bad* metaphor, one that does far more to conceal what's going on than
> reveal.
> 
> Here's a better one:  Copyright is like blue cheese.  (OK, I guess you
> can say it's a simile, since it uses 'like').  I admit this isn't a very
> -good- metaphor (but both are, indeed, smelly and created by molds
> :-)... but I *like* blue cheese, so there's a flaw... well, maybe not,
> since both are bad for me).

Always helps to have a gnostic tasteful philosopher around :-)

    holger