&gt; some people need to eat.<p>That&#x27;ll need to be addressed some day: jobs are being automated away (yesterday typists, today cashiers, tomorrow drivers…), and those people need to eat too. Then there&#x27;s artificial scarcity.  Unlike food, software can be copied at negligible costs.  <i>Proprietary</i> software puts arbitrary (and harmful) restrictions to that copying so that its developer can eat.<p>When we get our act together and finally have a form of guaranteed income,  we won&#x27;t need copyright or patents any more, because there won&#x27;t be any starving artist or author or developer.<p>Proprietary software is harmful and needs to die.  The <i>need</i> for proprietary software is harmful and needs to die.  I long for the day they will.