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Most of the people on HN sell/create digital goods and to say that we have no rights over the things we create is very insulting. I ran a business selling soft
by randallsquared 16y ago
Most of the people on HN sell/create digital goods and to say that we have no rights over the things we create is very insulting.
I ran a business selling software to small business for years. When I was selling software I'd written, I never tried to restrict the rights of my customers to resell copies of what I sold them. To say that they didn't really own what they'd bought would have been very insulting.
- shadowfox 16y agoIn some sense that is because you are applying a concept of buying that applies to physical goods to intangible "goods" like software.
- randallsquared 16y agoSure, and if you want to do software as a service, I have no quarrel with it. But if, when someone pays you, you then give them possession of a good, you shouldn't be able to maintain control over the good. If copying physical objects were as easy as copying software, the practice of renting a car wouldn't make a sustainable business, in exactly the same way. That doesn't mean we should restrict the production of automobiles by law; it just means another business model is required.
- gcb 16y agoNo one makes the right analogy for that "crime": If you aren't particularly crazy about some band,and they release an overpriced album, you will not buy. You will borrow from your friend and listen a couple times. Why is that so hard?