Science Memes

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abandonware empires (mander.xyz)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (3 children)

It was so hard for me to grasp at some point over a decade earlier that in the past, in the middle ages and earlier for example, that people would publish all these educational books.....and none of the info was copyrighted; literally anyone could find some book published by some random Greek or Arab person and just take all the knowledge, and release their own stuff that just freely builds on the knowledge contained within, or that inventions could be copied by anyone and no one was like 'pay me for my brilliance'.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Absolutely. Free flow of information without pay wall allows humanity to collectively build upon itself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

At the same time, paying people who generate, develop and curate information, enables and encourages more people to do so. IMHO one of the amazing things about the open source movement is it's built on so much generosity of time and resources.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Could your average joe even afford to buy a single one of those handwritten books? Or even read said book for that matter...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Yes, but it's important to remember that a much (most?) of that work was performed by those with hereditary wealth, under the patronage of those with hereditary wealth, under the patronage of the church, or by clergy who had plenty of free time beyond their duties and no separate need to earn income for housing and food. In fact, one reason to enter the clergy was to gain access to the resources to pursue other activities.