Re: Why DRM exists [was Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!]

[Jeff Randall <randall@uph.com>]

On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 08:20:41AM -0700, Larry McVoy wrote:
> My point wasn't about theft, it was about reimplementation.
> I stand behind that point, what I've seen for more than a decade is
> reimplementation after reimplementation.  I'm not saying there is no
> value to that or that it is illegal or that there are no improvements
> (compare Unix diff to GNU diff if you want to see some imrovements).
> There is tons of value in having free versions of useful tools.
> There is also tons of value in the creation of new work.
> 
> What I haven't seen is a lot of revolutionary work.  All of that seems
> to come from commercial companies and at a pretty slow pace.  There are
> a lot of false starts, commercial failures, whatever.  But a few slam
> dunks as well.

Mosaic was pretty revolutionary for it's time.. as was Sendmail..
source was available for both from the start.


-- 
randall@uph.com    "It's a big world and you can hit it with any airplane."
                                           -- Flying, August 2000, Page 90.