In 1976, Bill Gates tried to persuade programmers that there should be copyrights for software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_Gates_Letter_to_Hobbyist

In 1976, Bill Gates tried to persuade programmers that there should be copyrights for software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_Gates_Letter_to_Hobbyists_ocr.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_Gates_Letter_to_Hobb... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists The "Abolish copyright!" and "Abolish intellectual property!" memes are quite old themselves. But those repeating them never explain how the world would work without copyrights. The meme has been repeated endlessly for the last thirty years but I haven't seen anyone present a vision for how things would work without copyrights; maybe I missed it As it happens, we know how things would work without software copyright. We only have to look at hobbyist programming in the 1970's For example, in a world without copyright law it's possible that There would be no more Microsoft Windows or MacOS. Anyone could copy that software without risk of being sued There would be no more enforceable "copyleft" licenses, e.g., GNU licenses. Online debates about open source software licenses and public domain software, e.g., SQLite, djb, would be pointless. "Your" software is now everyone's software and vice versa There would be no more enforceable "website terms of service" because "your" website is now everyone's website and vice versa. Anyone can copy anything Beyond software copyright, consider "your" submissions to www sites "Your content" would now be everyone's content and vice versa. Anyone could copy anyone else's work without permission, including "big corporations" For example, in the Mastodon terms of service, users grant the Mastodon GmbH company a license to use their content. Without copyright law, this license would not be necessary https://mastodon.social/api/v1/instance/terms_of_service https://mastodon.social/api/v1/instance/terms_of_service But it would not be necessary for "big corporations" to obtain a license from users either NB. The meme I'm referring to is not "modify copyright". It is "_abolish_ copyright". Quite a difference