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

[Matthias-Christian Ott]

Stefan Meretz <stefan.meretz at hbv.org> wrote:

> 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.

I didn't question the whole fact - that's the law of history. But we
have to consider time. If we now abolish copyright law, we could really
speed up this process.

I think in ancient times the slaves know that there will be some point
of time when slavery ends - it was a matter of time. But I think all
slaves would have been happy to end it very soon.

> Ciao,
> Stefan

Regards
Matthias-Christian