[linux-audio-user] Re: Free Software vs. Open Source: Wheredo*you* stand?

[Ross Vandegrift]

On Tue, Feb 21, 2006 at 11:06:20PM -0600, pjfjacks wrote:
> A computer program is much more than an integer - it is a collection of
> Words (translated through many layers) into zeros and ones that represent
> A unique solution to a problem.

No - that's also an important mistake.  It's not unique.  I printed
out the integer for /bin/arch on my workstation at work.  I did the
same here at home.  Unsurprisingly, the same "program" has non-unique
representations!  The source code, on the other hand may be unique.

A computer doesn't care about your source code anymore than your body
cares about a doctor's "GATAACTGAT.." notation of your DNA.  It's
merely notation - in that notated form, the DNA/program is completely
non-functional.

> Nevertheless, they do represent the intent of the author to create a unique
> Solution to some problem.

If you are talking about source code, I do agree.  But source code is
as useless to a computer as a picture of a liver is your bloodstream.
It's just not gonna do anything.

I disagree that a computer program and its source code are
identifiable.  They are obviously bear some relation to one another,
but that relation is certainly not identity!

> That is like saying no one can patent a piece of electric powered machinery
> because it is all just electrons, and no one has a patent on electrons.  
> The patent is not on the electrons, but on the unique way they are used.

No, not at all.  A machine is a physical object that functions with
it's non-digital representation.  Completely different.


-- 
Ross Vandegrift
ross at lug.udel.edu

"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine
man in the bonds of Hell."
	--St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37