Comment Becoming more inclined to open source (Score 1) 215
As someone who mostly works in Microsoft shops, I was disinclined to open source.
I must admit, as time has gone on my opinion on the sanctity of Intellectual Property has changed.
I am not sure that I am willing to state than anyone who charges for their code, their music or any product of their labors is a scoundrel. This seems to me to be a bit ass backwards. Prices tend to be a mechanism of establishing a reciprocal relationship. (I will give you this code if you give me back something of value in return) I find repellent the idea that I should have the right to demand from someone something for free. I do not go to the farmer's house and demand that he feed me.
At the same time, the farmer does not sue me for giving a piece of fruit to my son, or if I sell it to my neighbor for a bit more than the price I paid for it. The farmer claims no right to a piece of fruit once I have given him something of value in exchange for it.
The questions seems to be more, how do we approach the commodification of software, music and other intellectual pursuits, so that they the trade more easily in the marketplace, like fruits and vegetables. Needless to say, the attempt to place natural phenomena like genes and seeds under the umbrella of Intellectual Property tends to be huge a step in the wrong direction.
The problem is that the mechanism for enforcing IP rights is backwards. Once one sells their product, the idea the creator of the product has rights to the disposition of the property is completely ludicrous. It may mean, practically, that most software is free, except for bespoke software, as simple market forces will lower the price of most things to zero or as near zero as possible and the difference between Intellectual Property and produce is the former is much easier to copy than the other. Hence, while the labor of the farmer is embedded in each piece of fruit, the creative or "intellectual labor" is not so easily embedded. The model seems to be the Grateful Dead, who still profited from their labors, but made the product of their labors freely transferable to all. That, I believe, is the model software needs to go toward. But how to get there, and whether being part of a successful open source project is the best way, is, I believe, best discovered through the development of the software marketplace overtime.