How is it different?
By Andrew Smith
Are you one of those people who think all software should be free? I don’t like you. But that’s besides the point, I’m going to look at how your views might apply to other very similar products and maybe that will be interesting.
In the paragraphs below – when I say positively ethical I mean progressively ethical, that’s as in more than just ok.
Book authors
A writer sat locked up in his house for a year, and wrote a book. He then took that book to a publisher, who thought it would sell, and got an agreement to receive royaltees off book sales for his writing.
Is it positively ethical for you (another publisher) to buy one copy of the book, print a few thousand copies, and sell them at half price paying no royaltees to the author who spent a year on it?
Car designers
I don’t know what they’re called – the people who actually draw the shape of a car. You are a designer working for Porsche, and you drew up the 911 (those photos don’t do it justice). You wasted a tonne (literally, a tonne) of paper going through contless revisions, to make it perfect. Porsche made it happen, and sold one to Ford Motor Company.
Is it positively ethical for Ford to copy the car’s design, make fifty thousand Ford 912s, and sell them half price, without paying a dime to Porsche?
Fashion designers
You are Calvin Klein. You work for a year coming up with the definition of style for the next few months. You sell one set of clothes a fashion junkie, who is actually working for a chinese sweat shop.
Is it positively ethical for the chinese sweat shop to make ten thousand copies in a few days and start selling them in stores at 5% of your price before you even get your stuff in stores?
Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Say you’re AMD. You designed the Tauron 25GHz processor. You sell one to Intel.
Is it positively ethical for Intel to use their magic 1-minute reverse engineering tool (say there was such a thing) to copy your design, make five hundred million Pentium XXV processors, and sell them at a discount, since they didn’t spend any money on design?
If you answered yes to any of the above – you’re a sad, pathetic human being. You have no marketable creativity, and maybe you’re not very bright. You just aren’t capable of understanding the value of talent, and the ammount of effort it takes to put an abstract set of ideas into a less abstract (but still not physical) design. You should be ashamed of yourself.
If you answered no to all of the above, then tell me – how is software any different? I’m all for hobbyists giving away their work if they please (I do it myself quite a lot), but what gives you the right to say that anyone who isn’t willing should work for free?
January 29th, 2008 at 9:48
Here’s a response via my blog: http://blog.chris.tylers.info/index.php?/archives/103-The-Service-Industry.html
January 29th, 2008 at 11:03
Another great blog Andrew.
I disagree with you on some points; but I am a sad pathetic waste of life with no marketable value to humanity… so why would I bother writing them down here?
Oh btw, I’ve copied all your blog postings and have exchanged your name for my own. I am now in the process of getting a regular column in a major national magazine who will pay me $5000 an article… so would you please hurry up and post more often? My kids need feeding.
January 29th, 2008 at 19:51
Chris, I think you missed the point. I’m not talking about breaking the law, I’m talking about the ethics of making a law that says software doesn’t enjoy the same protection as other intelectual creations – such as your book.
Mike, you bastard! :) I was going to quickly add a copyright notice to all my posts, but then remembered that these days any published work (blogs included) is copyrighted by default.
January 30th, 2008 at 16:47
My lawyer is bigger than your lawyer
February 1st, 2008 at 15:43
Except we’re all forgetting that Calvin Klein (before he started any work on the next great fashion) most likely looked through some very very old magazines, or internet pictures, and well… maybe actually took some of the small ideas out of each one and put them altogether into TA-DA – an “original” idea. Same goes (especially) with books. For example, Harry Potter’s every flavour beans would be awesome if they weren’t already mentioned in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and etc, you get my idea.
THIS IS WHY software is different. Chances are, there is only one program that does THESE EXACT FUNCTIONS. And if there are more, it’s only natural competition. This is not to say that talent shouldn’t be rewarded and that it is fair for software to be free. But um… perhaps not $850 (Photoshop)? We’re all starving here.