STALLMAN(玩linux的恐怕没人不认识吧)曾经好像用类似物质消耗的观点来解释,软件是不为消耗的,他的原话是:Our ideas and intuitions about property for material objects are about
whether it is right to take an object away from someone else. They don't
directly apply to making a copy of something. But the owners ask us to
apply them anyway.。