> > How do you suppose software developers should make a living? > > how about selling support for the crappy software they write? > bb >
The same way lawyers, doctors, engineers and just about everyone else earns a living. They master a body of public knowledge and apply it skillfully. Would you trust a lawyer who would not let you see briefs submitted on your behalf? A doctor who would not let anyone see his office or tell you what medicine you are taking? What would you think of a doctor that discovered a new treatment and then kept it secret? Most people are still outraged by behavior like that. We're not talking about "developers" anyway. Most of them do earn their pay just like any other professional. They solve problems for their clients. Few of them suffer from intellectual retentiveness. The problem, for everyone, is big software and other publishers. They buy and sell other people's work. They want to own the very idea behind that work and keep real developers from being able to compete. Run away copyright and patent laws will run developers out of the market faster than free tools they can share and exploit. Big publishers love the tools their retentive peers in the software industry have come up with to eliminate customer choice, such as "trusted computing" and "digital rights management". You don't get more freaky and controlling than that. If the freaks had their way, you still would not be able to attach your 2400 baud modem to your phone line without paying a big fat licensing fee.
