From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 08:31:48 +0000
From: Pat Gunn pgunn01@ibm.net
Subject: [9fans] Plan9 should be free distributable
Topicbox-Message-UUID: afbd1f02-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025
Message-ID: <20000522083148.wj13VT5Cub-n0Jar0IvOjrjjluG9y7DbeniucZEN_VA@z>

> > The plan9 technology is amazing and if it doesn't become freely available it will be cloned and we will
> > start an open plan9 distribution, there might be patent issues but only in the USA... Software patents
> > are not enforced everywhere, they are abusive and void.
> You are of course at liberty to give your own work away free, but I
> can't see your justification for insisting that others do the same.
>
> There is nothing to stop you or anyone else starting a new Linux
> like effort to reimplement the Plan9 ideas. But I don't think you
> should advocate stealing someone else's code.

It's not theft, because nothing is taken. Your argument presumes the
validity of intellectual property, something which I think is invalid.

> In your arguments, you seem to ignore the fact the the most popular
> (and vastly inferiour) operating system on the market costs quite
> a lot more than Plan9, and I don't see hordes of "NT/Windows" clones
> out there because of it.

Because NT isn't documented well enough to make it easily cloned :)

--
"Religion is a crutch, and only the crippled need crutches" -- Madalyn Murray
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