[Consortium] fao Paul White: Letter for publication

Hello Paul, In your July issue editorial, I think you've unintentionally misrepresented the views of free software developers producing audio and music applications for Linux and other platforms. There are people who think software should be free, but they're not demanding that proprietary software houses give away their creations. Instead, they are writing their own software, and giving the source code away - which of course they are perfectly entitled to do. It has practical benefits because software needs active maintenance to remain useful, so the more people who have access to the code, the better. The argument that software and physical property, such as the stuff in your house, are equivalent will always fall on its face. At the end of the day, software is just a bunch of numbers, and what's true for software creators (marginal or zero cost copying) is just as true for software users. Proprietary software companies moan about so-called 'piracy', but in truth they'd rather have an unpaid-for copy of their own software running on your machine than a paid-for copy from their competitor. It's how a particular application becomes a de-facto standard. Every time someone passes a installer CD to their friend, they are participating in viral marketing for that company. Hardware prices have fallen dramatically, but proprietary music software is as expensive as ever. I mean, £1450 for a single copy of Nuendo, with known bugs? I'd resent having to pay for bug fix updates too. Is it any wonder that students and musicians are writing their own software? Cheers! Daniel James 63 School Green Road Freshwater Isle of Wight PO40 9AT