Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 11:31:14 -0700 From: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> To: tlambert2@mindspring.com Cc: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD, .Net comments - any reponse to this reasoning? Message-ID: <3B420F72.67E70447@acuson.com> References: <20010630174743.A85268@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <3B41B4A9.F95FE1FF@mindspring.com>
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Terry Lambert wrote: > I've seen this "software commons" argument before. > It was calimed to be a pro-GPL argument then, too. > > The problem is that it's not a commons unless it is > egalitarian in permitting everyone equal rights to it; > the GPL fails this test, since you can not use it in > a commercial product, unless you "pay" with your source > code that you add. It is unfortunate that the "commons" analogy made its way into common [sic] economic thinking. It is more unfortunate that the GPL supporters have latched on to it. "Commons" is intended to be some property held in common by all people. Look up "commons" in a history book instead of an economic text and you get a vastly different picture. If you take the analogy to its logical conclusion, then RMS is a feudal lord and his users are unfree serfs. I seriously doubt that this is the perception of the Movement he intended. > I've noticed a significant correlation between people > with objectivist philosophies and support of the GPL as > a means of stopping other people from acting like the > objectivist philosophy claims they will act, without any > controls on their actions to curb their "natural selfish > nature". I've noticed that too, and it bugs the s**t out of me. I am not an objectivist, but I at least understand what objectivism is. The philosophies of RMS are in direct opposition to the philosophies of Ayn Rand. You can't get much further away from objectivism than the core ideas of the FSF. GNUism (for lack of a better word) is founded on altruism, community, and the non-ownership of software, while objectivism is founded on self-interest, individualism, and the ownership of property. It is entirely possible that one could derive copyleft from objectivist premises, but I have yet to see anyone do so. The FSF spends a lot of time talking about freedom, and so do objectivists. For an objectivist that doesn't look further than the rhetoric, it is easy to see objectivism in the infocommunitarianism(*) of RMS. David (*) No, you won't find that word in the dictionary. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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