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Originally posted by erendorn
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Let's make one better, between A and B (let me know if you disagree)
- There is a public good, non-excludable and non-rivalrous.
A) an open source project.
B) some infrastructure build by the state, like a road (note: it's a special road, using the road does not damage it, nor prevents others to use it at the same time).
- An individual uses the common good to make some new goods
A) some contributions to the project
B) Any business that requires roads
- Some regulation decides what you can do with the newly created goods
1) In the copyleft case
A) you must contribute back to the project
B) you must give all the goods to the state, which will make more roads for everyone
2) In the permissive case
A) you do as you want, keep it secret, or put burden of maintenance on upstream
B) you keep the goods if you want, pay the state on a voluntary basis. But you can pay to have more roads closer to you, as an incentive.
3) In the proprietary case
B) Just kidding, the road was private, you paid your goods beforehand to be allowed to use it
.
Well in the real world, neither 1 (which is indeed the spirit of communism) nor 2 (which would be a non-profit, donation based state) actually work very well, and I would not tell that one is much better than the other (3 worked until we cut their heads :P). What happens in the real world is that you are taxed on a part of your revenue, which is hard to do on software
Your best bet is to have software of both types coexisting, I guess.
Anyway, in this example, 1 provides less freedom than 2, but more equality. That's my view on copyleft vs permissive, but it's pretty much subjective.
- There is a public good, non-excludable and non-rivalrous.
A) an open source project.
B) some infrastructure build by the state, like a road (note: it's a special road, using the road does not damage it, nor prevents others to use it at the same time).
- An individual uses the common good to make some new goods
A) some contributions to the project
B) Any business that requires roads
- Some regulation decides what you can do with the newly created goods
1) In the copyleft case
A) you must contribute back to the project
B) you must give all the goods to the state, which will make more roads for everyone
2) In the permissive case
A) you do as you want, keep it secret, or put burden of maintenance on upstream
B) you keep the goods if you want, pay the state on a voluntary basis. But you can pay to have more roads closer to you, as an incentive.
3) In the proprietary case
B) Just kidding, the road was private, you paid your goods beforehand to be allowed to use it
.Well in the real world, neither 1 (which is indeed the spirit of communism) nor 2 (which would be a non-profit, donation based state) actually work very well, and I would not tell that one is much better than the other (3 worked until we cut their heads :P). What happens in the real world is that you are taxed on a part of your revenue, which is hard to do on software
Your best bet is to have software of both types coexisting, I guess.Anyway, in this example, 1 provides less freedom than 2, but more equality. That's my view on copyleft vs permissive, but it's pretty much subjective.
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