[linux-audio-user] Announcing Gnomoradio

Daniel James daniel at mondodesigno.com
Thu Oct 30 06:47:08 EST 2003


> The "it" in "it is not free" here means the right to distribute
> something (also commercially), and if this costs something, "it" is
> not free in the RMS sense.

Actually, if you look at: 

http://www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.html

you'll see that originally, there was no distinction made between the 
two English meanings of 'free'. That came later.

I think it's unrealistic to expect that if you want to distribute 
something commercially, then you should have a right not to pay for 
it. It breaks the virtuous circle that makes free software great.

I think an important distinction between music and software is that 
software requires active developer input to retain its commercial 
value, and the equivalent isn't true of music. For example, plenty of 
1950's music still has commercial value, but most 1950's software 
does not. 

Given the often short careers of musicians, there must be plenty of 
people who are still getting an income from those old hits. (Probably 
not the musicians who made them, but that's another story - just ask 
the Rolling Stones). Without a 'pension' in the form of retained 
commercial rights, what would those people do? Be forced to keep 
playing live until they look like a bunch of ridiculous old men 
prancing around on stage? You've got to feel sorry for them - I'm 
sure they'd rather be playing golf or something. 

Cheers

Daniel



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