Sorry for all references to Communism, but that's the successful fight against the system I know best.
On Sat, Oct 20, 2001 at 02:18:11PM +0200, Alessandro Rubini wrote:
And copyright is evil law that should be abolished..
As already noted, this opinion may not be shared by everyone here :)
And that's not an exception that's a rule, most people talk about reforming not abolishing, because it seems more likely.
For example, in 70s/80s, most of KOR, Solidarity and other opposition talked about "reforming" socialism and those who said it should be abolished were in extreme minority, just like now with copyright/patent/etc. laws., and weren't being taken seriously by many.
If no-one obeys copyright, all software is free.
It's gratis, but not libre. Abolishing copyright doesn't create libre software, to that you also need to make availability of source code compulsory.
Computer software, unlike every[1] other item protected by copyright, is not self-evident, so having no copyright would be absolutely useless for the common good. Whether or not copyright fosters production by potential authors is irrelevant here.
When you read a book, you have all information. When you listen to music you have all information. When you run a program you have no information at all. Recreating "source code" for books and music once you have a "runnable" copy is a very little effort. For computer programs it's impossible. Without copyright you'd be able to exploit the four freedoms for every authoral work but software.
If there were no copyright, nobody would have any bussiness in hiding source code, therefore nobody would hide it.
Moreover, we need copyright to enforce copyleft. Without copyright, we can't ensure our software is not proprietarized.
That's just a trick. Without copyright laws, we wouldn't need copyleft, because nobody would have any bussiness in hiding source.
[1] I may forget some item, but "most" applies even if I am wrong
Some ? What about music and films ? I think the situation is exactly opposite. With the exception of books, everything else has its source hidden.