From: Alex Young Date: 2007-07-25T00:21:45+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby Editor John Joyce wrote: > > On Jul 24, 2007, at 5:04 AM, Brad Phelan wrote: > >> Chad Perrin wrote: >>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2007 at 06:49:59PM +0900, Brad Phelan wrote: >>>> However it always stuns me when software geeks come with >>>> arguments as previously posted because we are meant to be >>>> abstract thinkers. However I keep hearing the same old argument >>>> along the lines of `if I can't kick it, it has no value and >>>> should be free.` >>> I don't recall anyone saying anything of the sort. Maybe I'm >>> just not thinking abstractly enough to know where you got that. >> >> 'governmentally enforced artificial scarcity model where software >> is treated as physical product units.' >> >> >> What does this mean other than that software has no inherent >> monetary sale value other than that artificially imposed by >> government control? >> > Which is exactly the kind of half logic that would debunk all > 'governmentally enforced' rights, property or otherwise. I wouldn't call it "half logic". If you accept that value is derived from scarcity, and that bits can be copied arbitrarily easily (and are therefore by definition non-scarce and have *no* intrinsic value), then a government-enforced moratorium on copying bits under certain circumstances is required to give those bits themselves scarcity and therefore value. Unless you have a different model for defining intrinsic value, the logic is pretty solid... If your business model doesn't depend on making bits harder to copy, then you have no need for a government-enforced system to support it, and vice versa. It's exactly the same as businesses that don't need an artificial monopoly on a specific way of solving a problem - the vast majority of businesses don't have any interaction *at all* with the patent system. The fact that some businesses can get by without it doesn't mean that it should be "debunked" or even necessarily changed (although here and now isn't the place for *that* particular diversion). > They're all artifices imposed by social constructs. Some of them work > and some don't. If they don't work, they're ideally changed/fixed. Working on it :-) > But the ideal Star Trek world of no money and free and equal access > to everything is not going to happen any time soon. Only because we haven't cracked free energy and replicators yet... Again, working on it :-) -- Alex