[p2p-research] Is the P2PFoundation a Shill for Proprietary Software?

Tue Oct 20 05:15:44 CEST 2009

I did hesitate of forwarding this, not sure if it was spam, but in the end,
I decided on forwarding it as a possible source of income for one of our
readers, some of whom live lives of precarity ... I did not check if the
software was open source or not ... This forwarding for me was akin to
pointing to some job offers in private corporations, or towards FP7 funds.
Public money is just as tainted and conditional as private money, as far as
I'm concerned. I personally see nothing wrong in reviewing software. But
since it is not appreciated, I will refrain from forwarding this in the
future.

Otherwise, let me state clearly that though I'm for free software, I'm not
an enemy of proprietary software ... What we need is freedom for people to
choose. By the way, I still use mostly proprietary software. The reason is
simple, I have low tech skills, don't want to develop them, my last attempt
to install Ubuntu two years ago resulted in a total mess, and noboby in the
high minded free software community has ever come forward to help or assist
me in doing so. So, in the context of the necessity of spreading the p2p
message, I'll just be happy to use the tools at hand, unless someone helps
me cross that treshold in a minimally time consuming way.

I would not like to live in a society where such things would be forbidden,
though, I would favour rules and regulations that promote 'goods' and
disincentivice 'bads', and also pointing out that proprietary software is
now a bad choice in terms of innovation etc... So, though <I> choose to do
things in an open way, I in no way hold a totalitarian opinion that
everybody should make the same choice as I do. My political and
philosophical options are to outcooperate and transcend private property,
not abolish it. My problems with companies like MS is not that they use
proprietary licenses, but that they use unjust and illegal tactics to
silence and badger competitive threats.

Proprietary software by the way is not necessary monopolistic or leading to
centralization .. there are plenty of very small companies and enterpreneurs
doing it .... Using open source software can similarly be used for
monopolistic purposes, as Google has shown.

Let me also  state very clearly that I'm very sympathetic to small
enterprises trying to make a living, having been an enterpreneur myself in
the past. What some of you may not realize is that enterpreneurs put their
whole livelyhood and financial security on the line, not just for
themselves, but also for all the people that depend on their success for
their livelyhood. It is not an ideal situation, but it is the world we live
in, and I see nothing a priori unethical in small companies trying to get
their products in the limelight by solliciting reviews.

One more thing, free software developers are themselves an elite, in a
hierarchy of technical knowledge. As a non-techie, I experience that
hierarchy every day, and many such programmers do not give a hoot for those
who lack the same elitist skills. This is why for example, free software has
such a hard time getting to the desktop, because of a lack of care for the
end-user.

Michel

On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 12:46 AM, Patrick Anderson <agnucius at gmail.com>wrote:

> What does promoting user-subjugating software have to do with a
> Peer2Peer economy?
>
> Unless the users have access to (at least) the virtual sources of
> production (source code in this case) - even if the user does not have
> the skills to operate them (program in this case) - they are being put
> into a hierarchy that gives undue power to those that withhold those
> sources for the ultimate purpose of extracting more value (profit)
> from the user than the real labor-value and other costs that were
> inserted.
>
> Withholding sources is unjust because is stops the users' freedom to
> hire any qualified worker.
>
> It is a strategy of monopolization that unfairly concentrates wealth
> beyond what "the market" would be willing to pay for that same work
> and resource usage.
>
> How can the P2P Foundation not be aware of this troublesome issue, and
> if they (you, Michel) *are* aware, then why are you not sensitive to
> it?
>
>
>
> 2009/10/19 Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>:
> > I'm forwarding it to some other people who might be interested,
> >
> > Michel
> >
> > 2009/10/19 jane.hu <jane.hu at colasoft.com>
> >>
> >> Hello Michel,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> This is Jane from www.Colasoft.com, we are looking for an editor who
> can
> >> help us write a product review, our product is a wireshark-like network
> >> analysis software, I believe you are the right person who can help us
> write
> >> a product review and get it published。
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Please visit following page for detailed product introduction and key
> >> features:  http://www.colasoft.com/capsa/index.php?click=text
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Would you please consider writing a review for Colasoft Capsa? We’ll be
> >> pleased to provide you a license key for your evaluation purpose. A
> recent
> >> review from techrepublic can be viewed here:
> >>
> >> http://blogs.techrepublic.com/products/?p=709
> >>
> >> if you are interested in our offer, please take a second to write a
> reply,
> >> thanks for your time!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> Jane
> >>
> >> Tel:     +86 138 81743617
> >>
> >> MSN/Email:  jane.hu at colasoft.com
> >>
> >> Site:    http://www.colasoft.com/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Best Regards,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Jane.Hu
> >>
> >> Marketing Department
> >>
> >> Colasoft - Maximize Network Value
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Tel:     8628.8512.0922 x 806
> >>
> >> Fax:     8628.8512.0911
> >>
> >> Email:   jane.hu at colasoft.com
> >>
> >> Site:    http://www.colasoft.com/
> >>
> >> Blog:  http://blog.colasoft.com
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University -
> Research:
> > http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
> > http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
> >
> > P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  -
> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
> >
> > Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
> > http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
> >
> > Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
> > http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > p2presearch mailing list
> > p2presearch at listcultures.org
> > http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
> >
> >
>

-- 
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20091020/c6c8d4d3/attachment-0001.html>