3 ms·

Is software really worth that much? I mean, its intrinsic value to society? It's normally used as the backdrop to a business process, wasting time or sharing ca

Is software really worth that much? I mean, its intrinsic value to society? It's normally used as the backdrop to a business process, wasting time or sharing cat pics, or some such thing, but really, a $51Billion valuation? Why can't we put a clamp on the problem of every random developer thinking they've created something that lasts a few minutes and has more value than most small countries make in a year? The entire system of copyright and software licensing needs to be abolished, and any software that is written instantly becomes the public domain. This would do away with many industries that serve almost no purpose for society, other than to attempt to extract value where no value has been created. The conventional way for developers to make money should come from becoming thought leaders on Twitter or maybe playing a few shows down at the bar.

neocraftster 11y ago
This is a false equivalence fallacy. Developers solve problems that businesses run into, whatever they may be, not just pump out code. Also, the solutions they come up with make use of a massive public domain of previously solved problems, like on stack overflow. If software had the same culture of copyright that music has today's technology would be equivalent to what we had in the 80's. The open source community is a glaring example of why you're analogy is so flawed, because there are many developers who believe open access to information is a good thing and that their skills are still valuable even if their work isn't copyrightable, and they do more than just believe this, they live their lives that way.