Re: OT: America's Army
On Mon, Jun 23, 2003 at 11:43:34AM -0400, Bijan Soleymani wrote:
>
> That's not a fair comparison. Sexual preference is not a choice. And
> secondly it doesn't really concern anyone other than the person and
> his/her partner.
Actually, that's exactly why this is a fair comparison, IMNSHO.
First, licensing choice is probably pretty similar to choice in sexual
partners, to be honest; they are both heavily influenced by culture,
upbringing, and philosophy, and probably even genetics. It's not
unlikely that there might be a combination of genes that controls how
'generous' an individual is likely to be.
Second, licensing doesn't concern anyone except those who voulentarily
engage in the relationship. Outside of food, water and shelter, we
don't really need much; using software, especially software written by
someone else, and even more especially a bloody *game* is a choice.
> I dislike proprietary software because it can't be copied and
> modified. It limits my freedom and that does concern me. That seems
> very reasonable to me.
Good. Write non-proprietary software, than -- I do. At the same time,
I respect the rights of others to do whatever the hell they want with
the things they create. As long as both sides of the
proprietary-vs-open debate maintain this respect, there aren't any
problems. The issues only arise when one side tries to play Mafia in
telling the other side what to do, as is the case both with Microsoft,
and with open-source zealots screaming, "But all code should be open!"
--
Don Werve <donw@examen.com> (Unix System Administrator)
Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue,
Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn bork! bork! bork!
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