> >Without an inherent mechanism for creating scarcity, there's
> little hope of
> >creating the vast profit pool that commercial software
> companies so crave.

Huh? Either that vast pool exists, so the those companies are happy, or
it does not exist, hence carcity, hence for-profit companies like
microcsoft will jump in and the aforementioned companies will be, well -
happy?

> What really IS
> artificial is 'free' software.

non-free software is natura??

>         Also, using copyright laws to enforce free
> distribution of some
> good/service is really a contradiction in terms. Copyright
> laws are there to
> protect profit.

No. The GPL is firmly rooted in copyright law. It even follows the laws
of economics, just not the financial enconomics. Read 'cathedral and
bazaar', not the paper but the full book, especially the last chapters
about the machanisms of the gift economy.

> If you choose to give away your profit, What kind of
> copyright protection can you claim ?

Copyright protection is there at the choice of the author (actually, it
is always there but the author can refrain from exercising his rights),
profit is optional.

> If you include
> a free spare in your car, does that imply that your whole car
> is now free ?

If that was the condition of giving you that spare and you accepted
that: yes, of course. You decided to enter the deal, so you have to
fulfill your part. Otherwise refuse the tire.

Note that the term 'free' as used by Stallman does *not* mean gratis. It
means freedom.

> If you
> include open source code in your proprietary algorithms, you
> must disclose
> them ? Nonsense. The end result is that nobody  working in
> the real economy
> will purposedly include open source code in his products.

Then so what? Its everybody's free choice (free again!) to use what he
wants, but always on the conditions of the author of the software.

>         It's ironic that the people who are for 'sharing' and
> not 'profit'
> end up hiring lawerys to enforce their copyright free copyrights...

GPL is definitely not 'copyright free'!

Wouter van Ooijen

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Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products

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