[p2p-research] thinking about leapfrogging

[M. Fioretti]

On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 00:00:23 AM +0100, Josef Davies-Coates wrote:

> Most people I know who are p2p advocates (including me) get around
> this by assuming that it is totally within the realms of reality
> that (before we can print anything, if we ever can) a large
> co-operative venture (perhaps between small local p2p producers)

first of all, I never said I'm against such ventures. What triggered
me to write that article were people claiming "hardware is nearing
free, if we just get rid of patents we'll actually be 100% free of
corporations and mass production; we will be able to live doing p2p
and local at any level, making everything from bricks to
microprocessors in small farms without central providers or
regulators".

so you don't have to convince me, really. I'm the one who *said* you
can't do 100% without large organizations and mass production if you
want to maintain the same real quality of life. I have no problem with
that notion.

Incidentally, as the italian cooperatives in Emilia Romagna mentioned
by Kevin prove, if you don't change many other things around such
coops become just big corporations with more tax privileges, which put
independent, small scale producers out of business. Not really p2p and
small scale. But we digress.

Back to the original argument, theoretically a semiconductor coop may
compete with Intel or Amd, or just make components for its own
members. But it couldn't do the same thing for wireless networks,
because there's only one spectrum.

Thanks for the Mondragon and UK links.

Marco
-- 
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you:            http://digifreedom.net/node/84