Re: TECH: Microsoft: Closed source is more secure

From: Chris Rasch (crasch@openknowledge.org)
Date: Wed Apr 25 2001 - 17:09:52 MDT


Francois-Rene Rideau wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 25, 2001 at 05:58:33PM -0000, Robert Coyote wrote:
> > As an ex software tester for MS, I can say MS only tests up to the point
> > where the cost of test is not exceeded by some marketing goal, I personally
> > know of quite a few "wont fix" bugs that will never be fixed because of
> > cost and timing considerations.
>
> This but confirms my section about disappearing services in my rant against
> patents, whose arguments are valid against Information Protectionism in
> general:
> http://fare.tunes.org/articles/patents.html#disappearing
>
> BTW, is there some kind of common extropian opinion about IP?
> I'm collecting various articles against IP at the end of the above article...
>

I don't think that there's a consensus opinion. I think a some extropians think
that IP laws (copyright, patents, trademark) are beneficial on the whole, though
they could use fine tuning (e.g. reduced terms of patents for software). Others
are less sympathetic, arguing that IP laws do more harm than good (giving certain
groups arbitrary and unfair state-enforced monopolies on ideas, reducing
innovation).

Chris

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