IBM Linux Video, going OT...

[JoeHill]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 05:00:15 -0500 (EST)
"Keith Mastin" <kmastin-PzQIwG9Jn9VAFePFGvp55w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> >> Oh? Why is that? If a corporation wants to release a piece of software
> >> that will benefit those who use it, if it's available freely for all to
> >> use and contribute to, what's the beef? My own personal belief is that
> >> if it doesn't violate the license to use it, fill yer boots.
> >
> > <philisophical rant>
> >
> > I'd argue that the only things worth anything are those that you can't
> > put a value on.

That's kind of a contradiction, no?  Money, or whatever you want to call a means
of exchange, is not evil, it is the way that means of exchange is modelled that
leads to problems. ie., money is not the root of all evil, bankers are ;-)

> I would agree if you were referring to family or mom's special apple pie,
> but not for software. Computers, like homes, cost money. Yes, one could
> live without either, but I personally don't want to. I like making a
> living by playing with computers, and I like my home that it pays for.
> Both are valuated with a dollar figure.
> 
> What makes OSS valuable is that we can do so much with it and that it
> works, not that it's free (as in beer). Put a price tag on it and people
> will pay (and yes, some will steal).
> 
> Some of us just don't want stuff just because it's free (as in beer).
> There are plenty of free (as in beer) cardboard boxes that one could drag
> under a bridge instead of paying rent and bills. I think going to jail is
> free (asa in beer) too, but I'm not jumping at it just because it's free
> (as in beer).

I don't think the problem lies in whether software is free (as in beer) or free
(as in speech), it's with the clash of two inherantly contradictory economic
models. Someone on this list, I can't remember who, pointed out that there are
alternative monetary or "exchange" models that fit better with the OSS
philosophy/modus. The problem we are seeing now with SCO, MS, etc. is that the
current mode of exchange tends toward monopoly, thus the OSS model is anathema
to the bankers and lawyers and corporate bureaucrats (oh my!) who want to
concentrate everything around some outdated concept of ownership. This is where
we get fiasco's like the DMCA, Palladium, etc.

-- 
JoeHill
Registered Linux user #282046
Homepage: www.orderinchaos.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point,
however, is to change it."-- Karl Marx
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