If you take an apple from a shop, it’s one apple less for someone else. This economical concept is called "rival good". Two persons cannot benefit from the same rival good at the same time. Taking a rival good without paying for it is called "stealing".
On the other hand, some economical goods are "non-rival". A toll for crossing a bridge, for example. If you manage to sneake under the barrier and cross the bridge without paying, are you stealing something? In fact, if nobody notices it, nothing has changed in the world. There’s no victim. It might be illegal and/or immoral but it is clearly not "stealing".
On the other hand, some economical goods are "non-rival". A toll for crossing a bridge, for example. If you manage to sneake under the barrier and cross the bridge without paying, are you stealing something? In fact, if nobody notices it, nothing changes in the world. There’s no victim. It might be illegal and/or immoral but it is clearly not "stealing".
Different countries have different laws regarding the copy of non-rival goods. France and many countries have "droits d’auteurs", patrimonial rights were the author is recognized perpetual rights on a work. Anglo-saxon countries use, instead, the notion of copyright. Copyright was initialy invented in England as a way to censor books and ban the printing of non-approved books. It evolved to become the "right to copy" a non-rival good, a right that could be sold and transfered.
Different countries have different laws regarding the copy of non-rival goods. France and many countries have "droits d’auteurs", patrimonial rights were the author has recognized perpetual rights on a work. Anglo-saxon countries use, instead, the notion of copyright. Copyright was initialy invented in England as a way to censor books and ban the printing of non-approved books. It evolved to become the "right to copy" a non-rival good, a right that could be sold and transfered.
Computers have always been rival goods. In fact, there were so big that nobody could possibly imagine stealing them. Software was seen as the instruction on how to use the computers. At first, every single program was done for one single computer and it was not even imaginable to think that the program could be useful somewhere else.
Computers have always been rival goods. In fact, they were so big that nobody could possibly imagine stealing them. Software was seen as the instruction on how to use the computers. At first, every single program was done for one single computer and it was not even imaginable to think that the program could be useful somewhere else.
Slowly, software became more and more complex and the idea of "portability" appeared. Maybe we could share how we use our computers and use the same software. UNIX was built with this exact philosophy.
Software were not seen as economical goods in the same sense as instructions to use your dishwasher are not something sold. It seems obvious that, if you write instructions to use your own dishwasher, that you paid for, you would never sell them. But it could be useful to share them with someone having the same or a similar dishwasher. Programmers were thus sharing without even thinking much about the business of software. Business was, after all, selling computers. And the more software, the more people will be encouraged to buy computers.
Software were not seen as economical goods in the same sense as instructions to use your dishwasher are not something sold. It seems obvious that if you write instructions to use your own dishwasher that you paid for, you would never sell them. But it could be useful to share them with someone having the same or a similar dishwasher. Programmers were thus sharing without even thinking much about the business of software. Business was, after all, selling computers. And the more software, the more people will be encouraged to buy computers.
In 1976, Bill Gates tried to fight this philosophy by instituting software as a real business.
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@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Some license would soon appear. They would be granting the access to Free Softwa
The word "free" should be understood as in "freedom", not as in "free beer". That’s why the french/spanish world "libre" is often used to clarify the meaning. FLOSS means : "Free and Libre Open Source Software".
It is important to note that nothing prevents anyone from selling free software. As long as you give those same rights to your customers, you can sell the software. Richard Stallman himself earned a living for multiple years by selling copy of Emacs, at a time were Internet connections were rares. You would send him money and an enveloppe, and he would send you a disk with the software.
It is important to note that nothing prevents anyone from selling free software. As long as you give those same rights to your customers, you can sell the software. Richard Stallman himself earned a living for multiple years by selling copy of Emacs, at a time where Internet connection was rare. You would send him money and an enveloppe, and he would send you a disk with the software.
But "Free Software" was often confused with "Freeware", softwares that are proprietary but distributed freely (often as a limited version of a paying proprietary software). People building Free Software were looking for a clarification.
