RE: Autom8it nolonger free?

["Mark Hetherington" <mark.egroups@xxxxxxx>]

Paul Gordon wrote:

> In fairness to Jim, when he embarked on the Autom8it project,
> I believe he
> stated the intention that it would be a commercial endeavour
> (that's my
> recollection...) it has been free only throughout the beta
> period... and I
> believe that was always the stated situation... (I'm sure
> someone will tell
> me if I've got that wrong...)

You recollections of the original intentions wrt charging seem to agree
with my own.


> Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer it to remain free as well, -
> in fact I'd
> prefer all software to be free, (and music, and movies...)
> but that's really
> the crux of a much larger problem that affects a much larger part of
> society, and is definately a discussion for another day!

Make cars, houses, AV systems, etc free and I am sure intangible items
will be free as well. There is no argument to make intangibles free when
tangibles are not. Why should a guy that merely watches a machine make a
car be paid while a guy that spends a great deal of time producing say
music or a movie should give away his work?  The chances are that the
latter put much more effort into it so is surely worth compensating for
his efforts. I doubt we would have the successful music and movies we do
if they makers had to rely on watching a mchine to make a car to finance
their artistic pursuits.

Mark.