Richard Damon wrote:
Our current computing environment grew out of the ability for companies to make a profit out of the sales of software. Without the base of commercial software, the demand for inexpensive hardware to run it on wouldn't be there, and computers then would be expensive, and a limited base to promote the development of the Free Software movement.
That's all speculation. It's impossible to say how things would have turned out if copyrights didn't apply to software. Certainly different, but not necessarily worse. In the early days, computer manufacturers didn't worry about people copying their software, because it was no use without the hardware, and selling hardware was how they made their money. There's no reason that business model couldn't have continued into the PC era. -- Greg -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
