[plug] Fwd: [SLUG] Lucky 13 for Linux

[Greg Mildenhall]

On Tue, 13 Apr 1999, skribe wrote:
> On 13-Apr-99 Greg Mildenhall wrote:
> > I am recieving Austudy while I do my honours project - which is 
> > effectively a piece of free software.
> So you're being subsidised by my tax dollars?  Hardly free then is it?  
Come back when you understand what "free software" means.
I can't believe you're getting so worked up on a topic you don't even
understand the basis of.

> Get out into the real world, son, before you start trying to ram this
> socialist nonsense down our throats.
Socialist??? Everything I've written has been in the context of "how to
make the capitalist principle work in the software market."
What you've written has basically been in favour of centralised control of
public goods - a core tenet of the socialist philosophy.

It is sad to see that you don't understand the terms "socialism" or
"capitalism" any better than the term "free software".


> Intellectual property rights are not something that can be tossed away
> because you feel it's inconvenient.  
"Intellectual property" is not a concept you can just invent because it is
convenient. Why don't you explain and justify this concept before you just
assume it exists?

> Those rights have been earnt by the blood, sweat and tears of the coders, 
> writers and artists that own them.
That gives them no right whatsoever to harm other people's well-being by
refusing to share their ideas when the cost to themselves is negligible.
Does a hardware manufacturer claim to "own" the machine even after they've
sold it, on the grounds that it was the result of their blood sweat and
tears? No. Why should a software manufacturer have this right when they
have already been paid for their work?

Why won't you address my actual statements, rather than descending to
unrelated rhetoric?

-Greg Mildenhall