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> some people need to eat. That'll need to be addressed some day: jobs are being automated away (yesterday typists, today cashiers, tomorrow drivers…), and tho
by loup-vaillant 11y ago
> some people need to eat.
That'll need to be addressed some day: jobs are being automated away (yesterday typists, today cashiers, tomorrow drivers…), and those people need to eat too. Then there's artificial scarcity. Unlike food, software can be copied at negligible costs. Proprietary software puts arbitrary (and harmful) restrictions to that copying so that its developer can eat.
When we get our act together and finally have a form of guaranteed income, we won't need copyright or patents any more, because there won't be any starving artist or author or developer.
Proprietary software is harmful and needs to die. The need for proprietary software is harmful and needs to die. I long for the day they will.
- unsigner 11y agoThere's nothing artificial about the scarcity of people like cbloom and ryg, competent enough to produce something like Kraken. "getting your act together" sounds scary to someone who grew up in Communist Eastern Europe; I surely hope you don't get your act together.
- loup-vaillant 11y agoI was talking about the marginal cost of software. Of course the first copy is expensive. Of course talent is scarce. Of course time is scarce. Still, once it's done, copying it cost near nothing. If you raise that marginal cost above this natural "near zero", that creates an incentive to reinvent the wheel. Your actually scarce resource, talent, is being wasted on duplicated effort. Proprietary software causes duplicated efforts. Not an ideal use of our resources, don't you think? --- > "getting your act together" sounds scary to someone who grew up in Communist Eastern Europe Come on, that was a small group of people seizing power to the detriment of most everyone else. You sound like it's the only alternative to our corporate capitalism. Seriously?