So this is about protecting the rights of people rich enough to hire developers to work on bespoke projects that cannot be distributed as proprietary. I.e. Large corporations.
While the above is the case, I'd just like to note that it misses the thrust of the subthread - my point was that it can demonstrably be affordable for other than "large corporations", which is the case regardless of the license under which I am releasing it.
"I wasn't speaking in absolutes, so one counter anecdote hardly defeats the point."
You were talking out your ass, is what you were doing. An anecdote about THREE. INDIVIDUALS. doing X pretty solidly "defeats the point" that X is reserved to "large corporations" - we're not even a mid-sized corporation! None of the three of us currently paying for bespoke development is particularly wealthy (one is a part-time music teacher), if we'd gone overseas (or even out of state) we could lower development cost further, and the scope of our project is much larger than the minimum meaningful chunk of work.
"Bespoke development is cle[a]rly out of reach of most end-users."
Bespoke development is not out of reach of most end users, at least in terms of resources required. I would put forward that basically any user desiring a particular feature or small functionality change - outside of extreme examples - could financially manage it if 1) they cared enough and 2) they found sufficient friends interested in the same, and that for most users and simple tasks, "sufficient friends" is not a hugely high number. Organizationally, most users would presently have a hard time picking an appropriate developer and working with them, but that's a separate problem that numerous groups are working on solving.
With proprietary software, on the other hand, bespoke development is far further out of reach, because there is dramatically less competition - only the original authors can bid to modify a piece of proprietary software so no two groups are bidding on the same job.
I'm sorry you've chosen to stop being civil. It doesn't support your argument.
Bespoke development clearly is out of reach of most end users. There are billions of end users of computers now. You may exist in a rarefied stratum of the economy that gives you this freedom, but to claim that this is the case for most users is bizarre.
I am astonished that you think that choosing a good developer is the biggest challenge for end users who want custom software.
Your comment about proprietary software is invalidated by the examples of the web, Google Play, and the iOS app stores, which are brimming with highly specialized solutions which are developed because there is a business model to support the developers.
"I'm sorry you've chosen to stop being civil. It doesn't support your argument."
No, it doesn't support my argument. It also doesn't undermine it, and it served as a certain amount of stress relief in the face of an unconstructive and (in my view) absurd response, but it was nonetheless inappropriate and I apologize.
"Bespoke development clearly is out of reach of most end users. There are billions of end users of computers now. You may exist in a rarefied stratum of the economy that gives you this freedom, but to claim that this is the case for most users is bizarre."
Is your argument "it could not be sustainable, because there are not enough developers compared to users"? I don't see any other argument there, but as that one seems easily (if somewhat verbosely) addressed I want to be sure I'm speaking to your actual argument.
"I am astonished that you think that choosing a good developer is the biggest challenge for end users who want custom software."
Not just choosing a good developer, but collectively choosing a good developer, sufficiently defining the task, and communicating with the developer. I do think that is the biggest challenge for users who wish to customize an existing piece of software under a free license. It is not the biggest challenge for users who want to modify or reimplement a large piece of proprietary (or non-existent) software, but that is comparatively rare and it matters less the licenses of existing code. If you disagree, please be explicit about what challenges you think would dominate.
"Your comment about proprietary software is invalidated by the examples of the web, Google Play, and the iOS app stores, which are brimming with highly specialized solutions which are developed because there is a business model to support the developers."
That certainly invalidates any claim there can be no specialization in proprietary software, but I never made that claim. Freedom 1 is a right to modify the software I am running. That presumes there is an existing solution that's not quite what I want. If the license on that solution preserves my "freedom 1", paying someone to modify it is competitive, and therefore probably cheaper and probably better.
