    





    to license it to anybody who felt that they had a need
    for it, and if they refused such a license, it wouid then
    be stripped of its copyright protection. That's because
    Japan feels that it has a strong competitive advantage in
    che manuFacture and sale of hardware, bur ~hey feel like
    chey're years behind in the development of software,
    and frankly what they really wanted to do WaS strip the
    advantage that other nations had in the development of
    software from them so tbat they couid rake it if they
    wanted to use it.
    
    The dissennination of informanon as a free object is a
    vvorthy goal, it's che way most of us learned in ehe first
    place But the truch of the matter is, what people are
    doing has more and more commercial value and if there's
    any vvay for people to make money off of it, somebody's
    gonna uy to get an angle on it. So I chink that it ought
    to be up to the people who design the product whether
    or not they want to give it avvay or sell it. It's their
    product and it shouid be a personal decision.
    
    BILL ATKINSON tauthor of MACPAINT, the landmark
    groph~ies progrom on the Macintosh): Sometimes it's not
    even money. When I was ~vorking on QUICKDRAW I
    came across some improvements, rezi good algoritUms,
    that l'd never seen before that I would love to tell lots
    of people about. because I think they're really neat
    hacks. And yet, I want to see Apple araund in twenty
    years. It's not money for me; theyrre not paying me
    money to not talk about QUICKDRAW. I jusr know
    there's something there that gives Plac an advantage
    over an IBM PC and I don't really want to see IBM
    rip off QUICKDRAW. I don't. (oppbuSe)
    
    ANDREW FL1JEGELMAN: The problem is jost dis-
    tr~bution. There's been no thing on Earth so easy to
    distribute to poople as software. The reason tbet we
    gO OUt and pay five or ten or twenty thousand dollars
    for a car is berause you need a key to dnve it and it's
    usually sitting behind a fence at the dealer's showroom.
    The hct is that no matter how hard we work on some-
    thing, how n~uch inspiration or insight we put into it,
    
                             Hackers
    
    . _~
                                              =m
    
      ~-. ~
    
    ~ ~Y~= ~
    ~ Ä
    F~^ ``When I was working on QUICKDRAW I came across some
    improvements, real good algorithms, that I wouid love to tell lots
    of poople about, because I think they're really neat hacks. And yet,
    
  51 I want to see Apple around in 20 years. I just know there's some-
    thing there that g'.ves Mac an advaneage over an IBh1 PC and I
    - don'e really want to see IBM rip off QUICKDRAW. I don't."
    
                 ~~ - __~: ~_     _ - .
    
    ~ ~ -;~t, L'_ ;~,
    
    ~ ~ __'
    
                             F. ~ (,
    
    once ic's completed, in ~he medium in which we work,
    it's a trivial marter to make a perfect copy and give it
    to anybody in the world, instantly. That's what's been
    chaltenging us. It has nothing to do wieh whether it's
    easier or harder co make cars or write programs.
    
    TEC) KAEHLER (programmer at Xerox PARCÄPalo Alto
    Reseorch Center) Do you think it's reasonable, thraugh
    the scheme you're using to support Freeware, tbat

    





    everyone in chis roem couid be making a living tbat way7
    
    FWEGELb1ANI I reaily don'r know. I did it just as a
    giggie. The reason I srarted ~vas because l'd finishad this
    program, I was gonna send it out, and I knew that I
    didn't have a prayer of coming up with a copy-protection
    scheme tbat some kid in San Diego wasn't genna break
    the first night, 50 I figured i've gotta work with the
    system somebow.
    
    KAEHLER: You must know sornething about whether
    or not this many people could be doing tbat.
    
    FLUEGELMAN: I think maybe, if a lot of people were
    willing to put out what I would call fnlly supported pro-
    grams. That means not jost something tbet gets the job
    done for you, which is wha: I did in the first round, but
    one that is error-uapped, diat is documented, tbet is
    supported, tbat looks like it's been given all those tra~
    pings of velue. Then maybe you can appeal to people's
    sense of value and they'll contribute for it. It's wc~rked
    for me. I know it's worked for Bob and for a few others.
    
    DOUG GARR journalist from Omni): Could you tell us
    how the economics of Freeware vvorks7
    
    FLUEGELMAhl. I send out the program and I ask for
    a $35 contriLution, which for a progrum of its type
    man' people say is one-fifth the cost of what t;hey'd
    expect to spend commercially. So it's a bargain to begin
    with. I encou.~ge people to make copies. I try and dis-
    cou.~-age people from re-selling the p ogram and large
    corpo~tions Irom making thousands of copies. I tell
    poople tbet whether they liked it or not' give it tro a
    friend and i~ their friend likes it '.hen maybe they'll send
    
    me some money. I wouid guess tbat about one-tenth of
    th`~poople who are using the pr=gram now have paid
    for it, and there are a lot of commercial software
    companies that cen'~; make that claim. (hagt~terj
    
    STEVEN LEVY: There's someone hex who's suppo.~-
    ing a program that doesn~t ask for money. Dennis
    Broche.~, do you want to tell us about MACTEP
    and what you've done thex?
    
    D~NNIS BROTHERS: It s kind of a strange situation. I
    wrote it for my own use. I needed a communica~tions
    program for ~he Macinto~. so I w`.-ote it' and it ';urned
    out to be something that a lot of other people wanted
    as well. It's very primitive, ve~y c.~-ude, compared to
    PC-TALK, bur it was die right place and t.~e right time,
    and there was tremendous response for it. I'm kicking
    myself a .ittle now; maybe I shouid have put a littie
    message in there: "Please send 35 bucks." ~'1aughter;
    
    F.~EGEL,'~1AI~I: I just want to know: How many poople
    in this room ax using Dennis~s program and wouid send
    him some money for it? I wouid
    
    VOICE: Why don't you ask it as two questions'
    (laughter)
    
    FlldEGELMAN: No, it's a compound question.
    
    BROTHERS: It is not a high enough quality program,
    in my estimation, to wa.~nt tbat. And I don't have the
    ume to put into it to bring it up to the level of PC-
    TALK where I believe it wouid be wo.~h tbat kind
    of contwiburion.
    
    ART KLEINER (telecommualcau'ons ditor fw Whole
    Earth Software Ca~atog and Whole Ear~h Review): You
    had time to hang out on Compuserve Inetworkl and
    answer peeple's questions. though.
    
    BR3THERS: Yeah, but that's more for t~he fun of it. I
    don': have any better luck explaining this to m~ wife
    than explaining it eo you guys. (.aughterj Someda' I
    may make most of my income off that program and its
    derivatives and reLated things, but today my prima.'y
    bus~ness is completely unxlated to tbat, and I just don't
    
    The founding text

    





    for the Hackers'
    Conference was
    Steven Levy's
    Hacker5 (1984;
    456 pp.; 117. 95
    [rom Doubledy
    and Company, 501
    Fronklin Ave.,
    Garden City, NY
    .~1530, or Com-
    puter LiteraCy,~.
    
    Levy does for computerS what Tom
    Wolfe did for space WidT The Right
    Stuff. Both are behind-the-srenes
    tales of elite othletes pursuing potent
    new technologies; both ore vividly
    written; both are inspiring.
    
    The very structure of the book was
    the occosion {or the Conference. Levy
    chronicIes tree generations of hackers
    Äthe mini-computer all-night coders
    ot MlT and Stanford in the '60s, the
    hardware .hackers aroun.d the Home-
    brew Computer Clu.b wha marfe 2he
    first personal computers in the mid-
    '705, ond t.he myrind home-grown
    programmers on those computers as
    soOn as they hit the market, who gave
    
    us the goloxy of conSumer softwore
    from VISICALC to CHOPLIFTER. fn
    the succession of generobons Levy
    portrays a gradual degroding, com-
    mertiolizing of the Hocker Etbic.
    
    Th.e Hockers' Conference was cafkd
    to lain the tree generations fior the
    pr5t b'me to see if they had onything
    to sey to eoch other, and to see where
    the Hacker E2hiC reolly was after
    
    years of stress in the boom-and-bust
    computer business. "[ach genert.~'on,"
    remarked conference co-desigr~er Lee
    Fefsenstein, "has suffered an intusion
    of Big Money. ft may be ;nteres2.'ng
    for them to compare how they've
    dealt with tbat." ÄSB
    
    -
    
    