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Re: Free software



Le primidi 1er thermidor, an CCXXV, Ben Finney a écrit :
> By analogy: I am not capable of maintaining the house I live in, let
> alone of making significant improvements.
> 
> Yet I benefit from the fact that anyone sufficiently motivated can learn
> to do so and they don't need permission from the people who made the
> house.
> 
> If anyone who wanted to improve the house I live in were prevented from
> doing so without the express permission of the people who made the
> house, you're damned right I would complain.
> 
> I may have no intention of ever doing so myself, but I want a wide-open
> market of people who can do so if I ask, who have learned because no law
> stops them from doing so.

This is a very fine analogy, I will remember it.

For reference, in France, for public buildings designed by prestigious
architects, we have exactly that problem. The architects consider
themselves aaaartists rather than engineers. As a result, you get
buildings with the stairs to the previous and next floor at opposite
ends of a corridor (everybody takes the lift for two floors, obviously)
and naked concrete in a library.

Furthermore, when the people who actually use the building want to make
changes, the architects invoke their so-called intellectual property to
block it. They had to sue just to be allowed to add an invisible varnish
on the concrete to prevent the dust from ruining the books.

In fact, I think this issue is becoming more mainstream, especially with
hardware: "right to repair" is something very present in the news
nowadays.

Regards,

-- 
  Nicolas George

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