Re: free markets

From: Francois-Rene Rideau (fare@tunes.org)
Date: Tue Jun 19 2001 - 06:14:07 MDT


On Tue, Jun 19, 2001 at 12:26:09PM +0200, Felix Ungman wrote:
> The open source movement is driven by hobbyists
> that like to tinker with software for the fun of it.
No. It's driven by the fact that proprietary software covers so badly
the needs of consumers that even hobbyists can make significant improvement.
Scary, isn't it?

> What we need is a society where it's possible to make money
> on intellectual activity.
Exactly. And IP, aka Information Protectionism,
is precisely the opposite to valuing _activity_.
Instead, it values monopolies that consist in _preventing_ activity.
The legal framework I call for is Freedom. Think about it twice.

I invite you to read, e.g. the archives of the cybernethics mailing list,
where this question pops up regularly, on
        http://lists.tunes.org/mailman/listinfo/cybernethics
Or the collection of articles down
        http://fare.tunes.org/articles/patents.html

Also, for those interested in a co-analysis of the technical and economical
aspects of software development, may I recommend my own article:
        Metaprogramming and free availability of sources
        http://fare.tunes.org/articles/ll99/index.en.html

Yours freely,

[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
[ TUNES project for a Free Reflective Computing System | http://tunes.org ]
Free Market is not the end of every large-scale economical problem;
but it's the beginning to any long-term solution to anyone of them.

Free Software is not the end of every large-scale software problem;
but it's the beginning to any long-term solution to anyone of them.

Freedom is not the end of every large-scale problem;
but it's the beginning to any long-term solution to anyone of them.
                -- Faré



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