Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Free Software has no Pirates
Jonathan Schwartz on his blog says:
The most popular credit cards are the free ones. The most popular handsets, search engines, and checking accounts are the free ones. Just like the most popular operating systems will be, in the long run, the...
He also says:
Companies that suffered from piracy a decade ago now know the lesson well - piracy is a good thing so long as the pirates are folks who could never afford your products. So stop calling them pirates, call them users. Free software has no pirates. As I've said forever, there's value in volume, even if you're not paid for it.Right. If 10 people use MS-Word, do I care to interoperate with them? No. If 10 billion people use MS-Word, do I care to interoperate with them? Yes. So, if MS can get the 1st world to buy their software, it is in their interests to have the 3rd pirate it. The 3rd world pirating makes software more valuable in the 1st world.
[PermaLink] posted by acadac @ 4:54:00 PM 
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