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

Jeff Randall
2003-04-30T15:43:38Z

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.