Re: Source Code for OS?

[olcott <olcott@qwest.net>]

Simon Biber wrote:

> > :-) .... dream on!  The vast majority of those who download those
> > free copies would not be prepared to buy used copies.  If you must
> > pay actual money for it, you'll think twice of whether you actually
> > need it or not.  But if it's for free, you'll get it even if you
> > don't really need it.
>
> I agree, but there is software which I would like to get. If it was
> available on some website, sure I'd like to download it for free but if I
> couldn't then I would pay someone for it. So the price that people get on
> their investment does depend on whether someone has made it available for
> free. This is still the case whether it was some illegal act or whether it
> was the copyright author who reclassified the software.
>

The whole point of these nearly endless discussions is
that in some cases moral and legal do not directly correspond.
There are moral things that are illegal, and legal things that
are immoral.  In the case of copying software that does
not nor will have any possible commercial potential
for the remaining life of the copyright, there is no actual
harm that is taking place, (the author is not losing any money)
thus without harm, wrong can not exist.  There will never
again be any commercial potential for Apple Dos 3.3
software, the current stuff is hundreds fold more
functional. I myself would much rather buy the real
thing, but, making sure that every last copy is deleted
to merely to comply with the letter-of-the-law, is
absurd...

>
> > I would want to say that if you buy software not because you want to
> > use it but because you later want to sell it, used, at a high price,
> > you're most likely fooling yourself.
>
> maybe
>
> > Anyway, from your claim it follows that you think it was a BAD THING
> > when I asked for, and did get, Bob S-C's permission to distribute
> > copies of his old S-C Assembler for free, because then I robbed the
> > legitimate owners of that software of their possibility to sell their
> > copies in the second-hand software market.  Is that so?
>
> IMO on one level it is so. I'm glad IANAL...
>
> Simon.