Xah's Edu Corner: Responsible Software Licensing

[Xah Lee]

Responsible Software Licensing

Xah Lee, 200307

Software is a interesting invention. Software has this interesting
property, that it can be duplicated without cost, as if like copying
money. Never in history are goods duplicable without cost. But with the
invention of computer, the ephemeral non-physical programs break that
precept. In digital form, programs and music and books all become goods
in essentially infinite quantity.

All is good except, bads in digital form can also multiply equally,
just as goods. Well known examples are computer viruses and email
spams. Unknown to the throng of unix morons are software bads. In a
unix moron's mind, the predominant quip among hackers is “where is
your code?”, singnifying the mentality that a hacker's prestige is
judged on how much code he has contributed to the community. Therefore,
every fucking studs and happy-go-lucky morons put their homework on the
net, with a big stamp of FREE, and quite proud of their
“contributions” to the world. These digital bads, including
irresponsible programs, protocols, and languages, spread like viruses
until they obtained the touting right of being the STANDARD or MOST
POPULAR in industry, as if indicating superior quality. Examplary are
C, Perl, RFC, X-Windows, Apache, MySQL, Pretty Home Page (and almost
anything out of unix). The harm of a virus is temporal. The harm of
irresponsible software (especially with unscrupulous promotion) is the
creation of a entire generation of bad thinking and monkey coders. The
scale can be compared as to putting a bullet in a person brain, versus
creating a creed with the Holocaust aftermath.

Distribution of software is easily like pollution. I thought of a law
that would ban the distribution of software bads, or like charging for
garbage collection in modern societies. The problem is the difficulty
of deciding what is good and what is bad. Like in so many things, i
think the ultimate help is for people to be aware; so-called education;
I believe, if people are made aware of the situation i spoke of, then
irresponsible software will decrease, regardless any individual's
opinion.

The most important measure to counter the tremendous harm that
irresponsible software has done to the industry is to begin with
responsible licenses, such that the producer of a software will be
liable for damage incurred thru their software. As we know, today's
software license comes with a disclaimer that essentially says the
software is sold as is and the producer is not responsible for any
damage, nor guaranteeing the functionality of the software. It is this,
that ferments all sorts of sloppitudes and fads and myths to rampage
and survive in the software industry. Once when software producers are
liable for their products, just as bridge or airplane or transportation
or house builders are responsible for the things they build, then
injurious fads and creeds the likes of (Perl, Programing Patterns,
eXtreme Programing, “Universal” Modeling Language...) will
automatically disappear by dint of market force without anyone's
stipulation.

In our already established infrastructure of software and industry
practices that is so already fucked up by existing shams, we can not
immediately expect a about-face in software licenses from 0 liability
to 100% liability. We should gradually make them responsible. And this,
comes not from artificial force, but gradual establishment of awareness
among software professionals and their consumers. (Producers include
single individual to software houses, and consumers include not just
mom & pop but from IT corps to military.)

Please spread this idea.
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 Xah
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