Fwd: Freedom or Copyright? - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

[Stefan Meretz]

On 2008-02-11 21:29, David Gerard wrote:
> > Come on, loot at it seriously - from the perspective of the average
> > Joe. He doesn't know what Wikipedia or Free Software is, he just
> > knows that Wikipedia is his first entry on his google search page.
> > Do you think he has realised the philosophical dimensions of
> > Wikipedia or Free Software and believes in it?
>
> No, and that's not what the original says either. But nevertheless,
> out-cooperating is their particular method of out-competing.
> Wikipedia never set out to out-compete Britannica, it just did.
> (Wikipedia's goal is *not* to run a hideously popular and expensive
> website ...) Linux is not out to destroy Microsoft, that will be a
> completely unintentional side-effect. The end results are sufficient,
> the philosophical reasons are only useful if you want to understand
> the truck that just ran over your business.

True, but we are here to understand, aren't we?

Remember, the initial question was, if it is good when copyright 
vanished. And my answer was: It doesn't matter, proprietary software 
will be out-cooperated anyway. But it is not "their particular method", 
it is _our_ method when doing free software. Things changes, and in 
this case we are the changers. We should be aware of it, we should use 
out-cooperating in a positive sense.

Ciao,
Stefan

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