From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,a0be06fbc0dd71f1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!sn-xt-sjc-05!sn-xt-sjc-09!sn-post-sjc-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Brian May Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: The future of Ada is at risk Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:08:37 +1100 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: References: <20071229040639.f753f982.coolzone@it.dk> <13nek962cd55t08@corp.supernews.com> <47775D59.3070002@obry.net> <13ng45ujdi1q267@corp.supernews.com> User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:xjLHCnesrS3zvavFtFLVUUdXRHE= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19090 Date: 2007-12-31T10:08:37+11:00 List-Id: >>>>> "Phaedrus" == Phaedrus writes: Phaedrus> [...] But just imagine what would happen to Microsoft's Phaedrus> Word profits if the source code suddenly made it's way Phaedrus> into the public domain. [...] Need to watch your language here. "public domain" means all rights have been given away, and GPL code does not give away all rights. Also, it is not entirely obvious that profits would go down if the source code was available. Microsoft would not longer need to pay lawyer's fees or advertising campaigns against "software pirates". Programmers outside Microsoft would be able to solve bugs which Microsoft aren't interested in solving (sometimes this involves security issues). People would still pay Microsoft for support. Having said that, it would require a major culture shift, and I don't see this happening any time soon. -- Brian May