[d@DCC] A challenge

[Russell McOrmond]

Darryl Moore wrote:

> "Why should you not copy and share commercial software? When is it OK to
> freely share software?"


One of the problems we have is that too many words have been 
"appropriated" by one narrow political philosophy/business model.

   Just because something have a marginal price (price per copy) the 
same as the marginal cost of production and distribution (for pure 
intangibles, this is or approaches zero), does not mean that the 
software is non-commercial.  In some cases FLOSS is distributed with 
packaging and support which has a non-zero per-unit price, making it 
clearly "commercial", but none of this price is a per-copy royalty fee 
for the software itself.

   I tend to use the phrase "software manufacturing" to refer to the 
model that treats software as a product that is manufactured, 
distributed and sold on a per-unit basis the same as tangible goods.


   Unfortunately I'm suggesting that there is no simple way to talk 
about this issue that would fit into a single question or be a tiny part 
of a larger badge.  This question really has no place in this context, 
given it is about economic analysis and nothing at all to do with ethics 
(or whatever they were claiming it related to).

   Even saying "copying without permission" is not sufficient, given 
that not all copying is regulated copying or needing of any permission. 
   When outside of software (which is a recent thing, and where the term 
of copyright is far too long) the vast majority of human creativity in 
the public domain, with only the small amount of recent works (10's of 
years) regulated by copyright.  That the current old-economy monopolists 
are trying to make us forget about the limited term of copyright is part 
of the problem of discussing copyright at all in the context of Scouts 
and youth.

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  2359+ Canadians oppose Bill C-60 which protects antiquated Recording,
  Motion Picture and "software manufacturing" industries from change...
  http://KillBillC60.ca    Sign--> http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/