http://disqus.com/people/9f1dc407a86b3b81ad428a509d079ce1/enThu, 26 Jun 2008 11:17:03 -0000http://tlf.disqus.com/free_software_vs_the_tax_man/#comment-1454151I don't think characterizing free software as public good is accurate.<br><br>You could convince the maintainers of free software to write features, however you're really convincing them to modify their own copy that will later be distributed to you. <br><br>It is like convincing some company to change the recipes of their coffee and then distributing the results to you,<br><br>You own free software and you can exclude people from using your copy of that software just like you own that coffee you got for free and can exclude people from drinking that coffee. However if you let other guys use it, you can't use it at the same time. Thus it make softwares a rivalrous and excludable private goods.<br><br>But since it is so easy to copy, there's really no problem like there's no problem that the guy next to me drinking the same brand of coffee because he got his own.<br><br>With the magic of infinite goods, the problem of private goods become non-existence.KibaMon, 05 May 2008 20:25:27 -0000http://tlf.disqus.com/not_one_not_two_but_three_competing_open_source_mobile_operating_systems/#comment-1454794You forgot OpenMoko....KibaThu, 26 Jun 2008 11:17:03 -0000