My alternative busines model

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   No, your logic is broken. A cooking recipe like all other information 
   is useless without a human to interpret it. Software is different - 
   it is directly useful with no human involvement whatsoever. Therefore 
   software != information but software ~ a pump.

Your logic is actually broken.  A cooking recipe is useless without
tools.  You can't make lassange without a oven can you? The computer
is the oven, the recipe is the software, and the user is either the
cook (programmer) or the person who eats the lasange (user).

I have yet to see software that does not require human involvement
whatsoever.  Someone has to set it up before anyone can use it.

   > Software, literature and math are in the same category. Physyical
   > products are in another. The link between the two is observation and
   > action, i.e. : you.

   No, they're three different things. I think Bertrand Russell did some 
   good work on the differences, and I vaguely remember the 
   mathematician Wierner (sp?) did so as well.

   Basically, literature is information. Software is a tool. Math is 
   theory or concept. Literature != software != maths.

No, the tool is the computer.  Software is the information needed to
be able to use the computer.  You can't touch math, literature or
software, they all are expressions of some kind of an idea be it a
theorm, a poem or a program that does something fun.