Re: [ba-ohs-talk] Re: Rethinking Licensing
Paul Fernhout wrote: (01)
> JBut the overhead of all this negotiation etc. could be quite high.
> Example, big companies don't buy much shareware (and thus supposedly
> don't use it intentionally) because it is too much trouble to pay for it
> given their accounting systems. (Individuals figure out tricks like to
> bundle it into trip expenses, but these are kludges...) I've read of MLM
> schemes breaking down as the complexity of managing royalty payments to
> so many people becomes unwieldy. How do you even know where to send the
> checks? I guess the internet makes some of this potentially easier, but
> you'd need a totally structured development environment for the software
> case tracking every use of every piece of code -- probably one too rigid
> for my tastes. It's not all that easy to determine derived works -- what
> if a person wants to merge two functions from different vendors? Or
> split one into two parts? The overhead of this system may rapidly cost
> much more than any authors are making. At that point, then everyone
> should just work for a big company (or the government) and get
> salaries... (02)
These are all valid objections that need to be overcome. I am merely
putting forth the proposition that if a system *did* do these things
(overcoming the objections noted above in the process) then it would
produce a highly viable software ecosystem with high levels of
publishing and reuse, the ready availability of usable code, and the
potential for making a living as well, or at least paying for the computer
system that one had to have to connect to the web and develop the
software. (03)
Fundamentally, my observation is that "software is free" is only true
with respect to reproduction costs. With respect to development,
and maintenance, it takes time. And people have to eat. (04)
On the other hand, I have few irons in the fire aimed at removing the
need to eat and the need for housing as major obstacles to the kind
of nirvana we would like to enjoy. They'll take anywhere from 40 to
100 years to pan out, though, so for the majority of us, making a
living will still be a necessity for quite a while! (05)