Stefan's headers [was:Names and identifiers]
Steven D'Aprano
steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info
Sun Jun 10 07:08:27 EDT 2018
On Sun, 10 Jun 2018 13:36:34 +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:
>> That's all speculation. It's impossible to say how things would have
>> turned out if copyrights didn't apply to software. Certainly different,
>> but not necessarily worse.
>>
>> In the early days, computer manufacturers didn't worry about people
>> copying their software, because it was no use without the hardware, and
>> selling hardware was how they made their money. There's no reason that
>> business model couldn't have continued into the PC era.
>>
>>
> It would have meant that third-party software would not exist.
Says the fellow using a free mail server (funded by advertising) on a
free OS (funded by donations) on a free mailing list about a free
programming language :-)
Lack of copyright for software would not affect software-as-a-service
like Gmail. It would not affect FOSS licences like the MIT and BSD
licence, although it might declaw the GPL.
It would not affect shareware and postcardware and freeware software to
any appreciable amount. It would not affect the primary driver for FOSS,
namely people scratching their own itch and being willing to share that
solution with others.
So long as people had access to interpreters and compilers and the
ability to write and distribute their own code, the lack of copyright for
software would only have mattered for certain economic models for
software, namely the paid, closed-source, non-free commercial software
market. That's an important market, but it is not all of it.
The scenario you describe would require computers to be locked down
behind paywalls with trusted computing hardware (a misnomer, because its
about *not trusting the user* rather than trusting the computer) etc., or
a wholesale move to SAS with no access to any sort of development
environment beyond Excel spreadsheets.
While we are creeping ever closer to the day that the general purpose
computer is extinct or only available to an elite few, while the rest of
us are stuck in walled gardens using only approved software, the
technology for that didn't exist in the early days of the home computer
revolution.
--
Steven D'Aprano
"Ever since I learned about confirmation bias, I've been seeing
it everywhere." -- Jon Ronson
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