Re: Asimov Site

["Kelli Halliburton" <kelli217@crosswinds.not>]

> What about someone who wants a Fiero?  They can't get that
> legitimately anymore because they are no longer in production.  Unless
> they can get the company to make them one, start producing them again
> or get someone who owns one to sell them theirs they can't get one
> without stealing one.  If they don't want to steal it, they'll just
> have to live without it.
>
> The same goes for software.

What if you could make another Fiero from someone else's just by putting it
into a machine that would make an exact duplicate? Because this is what
we're talking about. The simplicity with which software can be copied makes
it foolish for the same rules to apply as with items that cannot be so
easily copied.

Yes, technically, Pontiac/GM would have grounds to prosecute, based on
copyrights of their design. And of course, if there were technologies from
the Fiero that were being used in current GM products, they could be said to
still be selling the technology of the Fiero. Much the same way that MS Word
2000 contains elements from MS Word 97, and may in fact contain some code
from as far back as MS Word 2.0 for DOS.

But if it were as simple to make a copy of a Fiero as simply putting it in a
machine and pressing a button, and yet Pontiac still chose to discontinue
making them, and people still wanted them, then wouldn't Pontiac be guilty
of artificially driving up demand, an unfair trade practice? There being no
good reason to discontinue making the product or at least licensing others
to make it, because, after all, all you have to do is press a button on a
machine...