Fw: Query about GNU-GPL

[MJ Ray]

Niall wrote:
> [...] Software is of a fundamentally different type than
> music, books or movies because /it/ /is/ /a/ /tool/ used to amplify
> human effort. It is therefore more like a spanner than a song.

My song helps cause a revolution and is saved as a file on disk.
Why is it fundamentally different to other software?
Software is just a stream of bits, a sequence of 0s and 1s.
"We can't depend for the long run on distinguishing one bitstream
from another in order to figure out which rules apply."

I have some sympathy for those who think there are some different
categories, but I don't think one can robustly claim it is the
format of creative work that makes it different.