Patrick Shirkey wrote:
>> free the freedom?
>>
>
> Or turn a blind eye to the capitalist agenda. It's a hard choice. I
> don't have respect for people who want to profit from some thing simply
> because they can but the truth is we wouldn't even have computers if it
> wasn't for that philosophy.
>
> Maybe there is more chance to do something useful by sleeping with the
> devil than putting up walls. At least that's one thing the UN seem to
> agree on at the moment.
i wouldnt say its got so bad as to be 'sleeping with the enemy' ... more
a case of extremism. but one of my heroes (and publisher ;-) is RMS
because he is *so* uncompromising. if he had compromised and watered
things down from the start, then by the time it filters through the
layers of apathy in our society we wouldnt have anything left. as it is,
the watered down forms of freedom are still useful.
turning a blind eye is okay in some respects - in fact you could say i
as a free software advocate am turning a blind eye to 'open source' with
my attitude. but actually i'm feeling very strongly that we campaigners
for freedom are missing a very important element out of our freedom -
the freedom to choose. and that includes the freedom to choose
proprietary software, god forbid. we HAVE to have this attitude though,
otherwise we are total hypocrites by virtue of our own standards. i
support Creative Commons because it offers everyone the freedom to
choose - and puts all options before us, from proprietary through to
Free, open source but non-commercial and finally public domain. and all
permutations in between. the emphasis though is the same as that of free
software campaigns - promoting the Community or 'Commons' - giving back
to the community rather than taking from it. *that* is what Larry Lessig
is *really* on about.
i have an aversion to religious extremism or fanaticism, having been
brought up in such an environment. but i also dont throw the baby out
with the bathwater (and haven't with my faith either, even though i wont
attend a church). fanaticism implies a lack of freedom, and free
software campaigners need to be very careful NOT to fall into the trap
of fanaticism.
argh, its about time i started a Copyleftmedia discussion list instead
of rabbiting on on l-a-u ;-)
bw
m~
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