[CS-FSLUG] Proprietary Software: Capitalism or Greed?

[Alan Trick]

> The assumption is that the product of a person's labor
> is only valueless and subject to uncompensated theft
> if it is software.

Actually, the problem lies in how (or if) you view intellectual
property. One of my favourite hackers, Richard Stallman said "When
someone uses the term 'intelectual property', typically he's either
confused himself, your trying to confuse you." Knowlege is not property
as we think of it. Knowlege ought to be free, even the founders of the
USPTO knew that (oh how things have changed).

Anyways, I though of an interesting dilema when reading your email. Lets
consider there is some company named MegaCorp which sells some software
named AdHocWare and they live in the country of Foo. Now I live in in a
poor, developing country Bar, and Bar has a law that ensures freedom of
information (i.e. I am legally able to copy any software and source
code). The question is, is there anything wrong or illegal with me
getting access to this AdHocWare and distributing it as much as I want.

If you think of it, there's nothing morally wrong with it. At least as a
Christian I can see no objection. Legally it fine because of the laws of
my country. The only argument you have left is an economic one, which
only makes sense if you are hard-line captialist, and even then it
doesn't work in the real world. There are quite a number of successful
linux bussinesses. No linux monopolies, but then those are economically
bad anyways.

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