Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 19:28:52 +0530 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Anatoly Vorobey <mellon@pobox.com> Cc: Arun Sharma <adsharma@sharmas.dhs.org>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The Ethics of Free Software Message-ID: <20000522192852.A21093@physics.iisc.ernet.in> In-Reply-To: <20000522145256.A5983@happy.checkpoint.com>; from mellon@pobox.com on Mon, May 22, 2000 at 02:52:56PM %2B0000 References: <20000521131809.A6546@sharmas.dhs.org> <20000522145256.A5983@happy.checkpoint.com>
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That article wasn't worthy of notice. Apart from being totally misguided and misinformed, I think to argue against free software on "ethical" grounds is an act of utter desperation. Even the worst "how-can-a-bunch-of-hackers-compete-with-Microsoft" article I've read didn't compare with this. And the gloating GNU-bashers out there can note that his reference to FreeBSD wasn't so flattering either. (But I'm curious, is it really true that there were three instances of "if (x=y)" in the source?) Anatoly Vorobey said on May 22, 2000 at 14:52:56: > On Sun, May 21, 2000 at 01:18:09PM -0700, Arun Sharma wrote: > > http://www.sdmagazine.com/features/2000/03/f4.shtml > > > > Just in case you missed this on slashdot. > > I thought it was really, really silly, in the true spirit of > Meyer wars raging occassionally on comp.object (the most memorable > one being "had they used Eiffel, that rocket wouldn't have crashed!"). > > Meyer reveals philosophical naiveness so astonishing one feels > embarrassed for him. I was particularly amused by his incisive > analysis of the history of copyright, in which he failed to > display any awareness of the differences between material and > intellectual property, culminating with the passage which > redefines the word "ahistorical": > > .. Until the 18th century, writers were ripped off by publishers. The > gradual imposition of a copyright (due largely in France to > Beaumarchais, author of the Barber of Seville and the Marriage of > Figaro as well as smuggler of arms to the American revolution) was a > major moral correction, re-establishing the rights of the creators. > > *re*-establishing, Dr. Meyer? > > -- > Anatoly Vorobey, > mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/ > "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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