Matthew Garrett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Brian Thomas Sniffen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Michael Poole <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >>> Lots of people cannot write or modify C code, but we accept as free >>> many programs that include C code. The user being inexpert in some >>> technique does not render a thing non-free. >> >> But something being *not software* does render it *not software*. > > dd if=/dev/mem of=/tmp/bios bs=1k skip=960 count=64 > > will happily present you with a copy of your system firmware (assuming > you're on x86). If you run ndisasm over it, you'll find it's x86 machine > code. You can even extract bits of it and run them. It looks awfully > like software. The fact that you lack the skills to turn it into > something that you recognise as software doesn't mean it isn't software.
And putting a paper copy into a good scanner will transform a printout of a program into software. The fact that something has a two-way conversion to software doesn't make it software. I've asked several times for a delineation, in the world where anything convertible to software is software, between what is software and what is not. I have yet to read such. -Brian -- Brian Sniffen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
