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The problem is ownership. Behind the GPL is a (traditional) view of ownership, where if you own something you can do what you like with it. Own that table? Well

The problem is ownership. Behind the GPL is a (traditional) view of ownership, where if you own something you can do what you like with it. Own that table? Well you can sand it, smash it, burn it or use it. This is your house? Well you can do what you like with it. Now, when it comes to IP that notion of ownership has all but been thrown away. 'Owning' a song entitles you to some rights, often only valid for a period of time, and subject to arbitrary modification later on. When it comes to software we're often even worse off - we can't even find out what it does. The GPL is an attempt to enforce a stronger notion of ownership, so that if you have the software in your possession you can do whatever you like to it. The source code is open, you can modify it, or anything else. So there's the harm. The harm is to you. When you're given a piece of software you have limited, if any, ability to find out what it does, to modify it to suit your needs, to modify it to play around. And yet you 'pay' for this software. You're paying to acquire a set of limited rights, often mutable and on the whole useless (as rights). You might say that's all a bit theoretical. But all the sony rootkits, Lenovo MITM attacks, credit carf theofts, etc. - they all happen because no one can see what the software they "own" does. I dislike the way the GPL works - copyleft enforcement - the law should simply be changed. But the principle seems about right.

yetanotherjosh 12y ago
It would be more useful instead of speaking in terms of different degrees of ownership to speak specifically in terms of what is owned and what isn't. In GPL software, you not only own the functioning application but you own (within certain privilege restrictions) the source code, and therefore can modify that source code to produce a new, different piece of software that you also own. Compare this to your song analogy. A GPL'd song would also provide the original production project "source" - the raw studio recordings of each track, the digital audio workstation file project that compiles it all together and renders the final single stereo track. You could then modify the song by removing individual elements, changing the mix, changing the arrangement, etc, and render out a new stereo song. Very few artists actually do this, because it's a weird idea that somehow the software industry has latched onto that no other sections care much about or think is particularly important, because they haven't been bitten by this strangely worded "freedom" bug. Or the table analogy: not only do you own the table, you own the design documents, the factory floor plan, the knowledge of what saws and blades and bolt suppliers were used to assemble it. You can then use that knowledge to produce new tables with modified designs. Etc. In other words your physical goods analogy falls pretty short unless you separate it into the functional object or IP and the original, complex information that allows one to actually produce modified versions of that object or IP.

yetanotherjosh 12y ago

It would be more useful instead of speaking in terms of different degrees of ownership to speak specifically in terms of what is owned and what isn't. In GPL software, you not only own the functioning application but you own (within certain privilege restrictions) the source code, and therefore can modify that source code to produce a new, different piece of software that you also own. Compare this to your song analogy. A GPL'd song would also provide the original production project "source" - the raw studio recordings of each track, the digital audio workstation file project that compiles it all together and renders the final single stereo track. You could then modify the song by removing individual elements, changing the mix, changing the arrangement, etc, and render out a new stereo song. Very few artists actually do this, because it's a weird idea that somehow the software industry has latched onto that no other sections care much about or think is particularly important, because they haven't been bitten by this strangely worded "freedom" bug. Or the table analogy: not only do you own the table, you own the design documents, the factory floor plan, the knowledge of what saws and blades and bolt suppliers were used to assemble it. You can then use that knowledge to produce new tables with modified designs. Etc. In other words your physical goods analogy falls pretty short unless you separate it into the functional object or IP and the original, complex information that allows one to actually produce modified versions of that object or IP.