Other Software > Developer's Corner

The programmer as (starving) artist

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Eóin:
The key is: with more and more free code available every year, why would I pay someone to "reinvent the same wheel" over and over? Stand on their shoulders and build something more, something better.
-zridling (February 21, 2010, 10:57 AM)
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Exactly true, but that doesn't affect the opportunity for work, it increases the quality if you still have skilled programmers to fit those pieces together.

The article seems to suggests that free software and programmers in general are shooting themselves in the foot by making their craft ever more accessible. But there is no evidence offered to support that statement, it's just random musing.

cranioscopical:
Discussions about code as poetry... programmers may end up writing code without getting paid directly for their work.
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Probably depends on how much is ode.

40hz:
why would I pay someone to "reinvent the same wheel" over and over?-zridling (February 21, 2010, 10:57 AM)
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Because that's the only way you'll ever get a better wheel with a rubber tire instead of just the same old stone disk with a hole in it.
-Stoic Joker (February 21, 2010, 01:08 PM)
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Unless, of course, somebody has previously obtained a patent for a "round object which rotates on a central axis" in which case you're stuck with the old wheel until the patent holder decides to put a rubber tire on it.
 ;)

Stoic Joker:
why would I pay someone to "reinvent the same wheel" over and over?-zridling (February 21, 2010, 10:57 AM)
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Because that's the only way you'll ever get a better wheel with a rubber tire instead of just the same old stone disk with a hole in it.-Stoic Joker (February 21, 2010, 01:08 PM)
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Unless, of course, somebody has previously obtained a patent for a "round object which rotates on a central axis" in which case you're stuck with the old wheel until the patent holder decides to put a rubber tire on it.
 ;)-40hz (February 24, 2010, 06:12 AM)
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(Ah, yes, Progress hobbled by lawyers & red tape) Now there's a sadly acurate analogy for a lot of what's happening these days...

mouser:
Some good points.

What I always worry about in such cases is the scenario where you have the public willing to pay $X for something (whether it be music, art, software), and have a line of middlemen working furiously to make sure the bulk of that money goes to them instead of the creator.

I worry that this means that the total cost of Open Source software isn't zero, but that the money spent on it goes entirely to middle men companies and support hotline companies, and none goes to the coders.

Same thing with music -- I want to make sure we don't end up with a situation where people are willing to pay $X a month for unlimited downloads, but that 99% of that goes to the internet service provider and 1% to the artist.

I just want to make sure we figure out ways for the content creators to get their fare of share of financial support, in the cases where that is important to them, without forcing the content creators to engage in day to day battles against giant corporations.

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