I was talking about the <i>marginal</i> cost of software.  Of course the first copy is expensive.  Of course talent is scarce.  Of course time is scarce.  Still, once it&#x27;s done, copying it cost near nothing.  If you raise that marginal cost above this natural &quot;near zero&quot;, that creates an incentive to reinvent the wheel. Your <i>actually</i> scarce resource, talent, is being wasted on duplicated effort.<p>Proprietary software causes duplicated efforts.  Not an ideal use of our resources, don&#x27;t you think?<p>---<p>&gt; <i>&quot;getting your act together&quot; sounds scary to someone who grew up in Communist Eastern Europe</i><p>Come on, that was a small group of people seizing power to the detriment of most everyone else.  You sound like it&#x27;s the only alternative to our corporate capitalism.  Seriously?