[pegasus]

A better analogy would be man-hours as lumber, OS and browsers as buildings, IDEs as factories, forges or shipyards and finally end-user software as furniture and the like.

As for overcoming the tension between user autonomy and developer compensation, my hope is that evolving decentralized platforms and AI tools will bring about a time when all users can collaborate in the creation and maintenance of most software they are using.

[svilen_dobrev]

i prefer to think of it as (public) infrastructure - like roads, for cars/buses/trucks or trains, including (to some extent) the cars themselves. Roads also decay - themselves or their supporting (eco)system shifts under them, be it dirt or water or tree-roots. And are public property, because has been deemed useful for the society to invest in them and let them be accessible and usable for free.

One may say that it is only the hardware (bare metal), or hardware plus virtualisation (IaC).. or even include OS in it.. but that would be up to road. You can walk on road - as end-user of that alone. Most people - end-users - would use a bus. Or train. Which is end-user software.

if the human society has entered the Information age, then these things that allow information to flow and to be entered or consumed, should become part of the society-funded infrastructure. Kind-a information (hardware+software)-tax, yes. With proper rules to spend that on proper topics.

Having roads is deemed strategic. Having communication-channels as well. So.. having information-level-fabric is too, no?

Edit: just saw this tangentially related: UN+OSI https://unite.un.org/news/osi-first-endorse-united-nations-o... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43340682

[guappa]

> my hope is that evolving decentralized platforms and AI tools will bring about a time when all users can collaborate in the creation and maintenance of most software they are using.

How would this happen without AGPL licenses exactly?

[AtomBalm]

The US can stop enforcing IP law, which I don’t think has a sound ethical justification in the first place. Ideas and code can’t be “stolen” like physical property. Using copyright law to oppose copyright is a practical tactic, but I wouldn’t say consistently principled.