3 ms·

Yup, long before I ever heard of Stallman we were passing around mag tapes full of software to share - people brought stuff to conferences and conference tapes

• sam_lowry_ 6y ago
  This is called pirating, now. I think Stallman contributed a lot to keep the sharing economy legal.
  • Taniwha 6y ago
    No it's not, sharing the source code of stuff you create yourself with others is not 'pirating', it basn't then and it isn't now (we're talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape here)
    • ganafagol 6y ago
      Creating and advocating for a legal framework elevates this to a different level. There is a difference between passing floppy discs to your buddies and software that whole industries are based on. It needs a solid legal foundation. And a philosophocal framework too, i it's supposed to survive. And that's what we should credit rms for.
    • zvr 6y ago
      You are correct if you're only talking about software created by _yourself_. However, most of the software I got on 9-track tapes were collective works, with the usual case being that the copyright owner was the employer of the people who actually wrote the software.