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Re: Iran, copyright, Matlab and Octave


From: Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
Subject: Re: Iran, copyright, Matlab and Octave
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:33:03 -0400

On 10 April 2013 10:24, John Swensen <address@hidden> wrote:
> Morality is the purview of philosophers and the religious. Even those who
> try to loosely define morality as harm to individuals and society, you could
> argue that copying Matlab is immoral because it affects the livelihoods of
> those working for The Mathworks.

My livelihood would be much better if everyone who copied Octave also
would send me a few dollars. So what's the difference between copying
Octave and Matlab? Why are you not feeling immoral about copying
Octave? People who copy Octave are hurting my livelihood too, aren't
they?

To answer my rhetorical question, no, they are not. They aren't
contributing to it, but they aren't hurting it either. Copying Matlab
doesn't harm the people who make Matlab any more than copying Octave
harms me. It is the same act. The only difference is TMW calls copiers
names names and I don't.

> Your argument that The Mathworks is not losing anything by Matlab
> being copied is pure conjecture on your part, as you don't have
> access to their marketing, sales, revenues, and other financials.

It is not conjecture. It is plain fact. They haven't lost something
that they already had when the copy happened. Nothing was taken away.
A hypothetical future acquisition isn't a present loss. You can make
financial charts about how much more money you would make if everyone
who copied paid for it, but *that* is pure conjecture, conjecturing
what would happen if everyone who copied also paid, which does not
happen now.

- Jordi G. H.


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