"rights" and "freedoms"

[Matthew C. Weigel]

On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, L. Peter Deutsch wrote:

> I find FSF's position on proportionate compensation quite clear and
> philosophically consistent; I don't like some of its consequences.

Think of it from another angle, then, that I think is consistent with the
Free Software Foundation's views: people using code are what's liberated,
not the software.  Programmers are free to provide their programming
services to people, using the works of their community to improve their
ability to provide services.  When a lawyer wins a case, the case records
aren't locked up, the court's decision isn't locked up, it builds the body
of law we live under.  Why doesn't service programming provide us,
programmers, with the same community?  Why do we compete not just on the
professional level, but on our resources?  Sure, lawyers don't give everyone
access to their private libraries and notes, but everything they've
*produced* is available.

The software industry is so caught up with building and shipping product
that programmers become assembly workers, if usually well-paid assembly
workers.  Frankly, I'm not going to college to get on an assembly line, and
I like that with the current body of free software I can probably make a
living as a service provider.

 Matthew Weigel                                       Programmer/Sysadmin
  weigel+ at pitt.edu                             Operating Systems Advocate
                         http://www.pitt.edu/~weigel