Jon Katz is at it again. Jon can't you please take out the sensationalism?
But I have one question: Are we maybe just in a Individualistic timebubble? If you go back only a hundred years, during the Industrial Revolution, individualism just did not exist as the people worked 14 hours a day to barely make a living. And if you look at the Middle Ages the masses didn't enjoy individuality either. Painters from that time didn't even sign their pictures as that was considered heretic. So are we just going back to the old way of doing things?
Stallman's point isn't about selling software. He even says it's OK to sell software as long as you use a free license but of course there is little reason to pay for a GPL'd piece of software. Stallman's reasoning is about the licensing part. If you use a non-free license you deprive the user of his freedoms because most importantly he is not allowed to change the program. This is where the difference between Ford and software lies. If you want to change the engine in a Ford you can do so but if you get a binary-only program you cannot change anything. Granted only a limited number of people know how to program but that is besides the point because if you want to change something you can learn how to change it. There is noone holding you back. There are other reasons to why you should write free software but this one is the most important.
You have made a very,very important point. This shows how the public is being controlled by the mainstream-media. Even in a free medium like the Internet most people will not get information that is "inappropriate" for them because they have no idea how to get it. But what I find is the saddest part is that 50% of the people living over here in Europe will not learn about it either. America is just to nice a projection plane for any hopes and desires. And the commercial media takes advantage of that.
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Jon Katz is at it again. Jon can't you please take out the sensationalism?
But I have one question:
Are we maybe just in a Individualistic timebubble?
If you go back only a hundred years, during the Industrial Revolution, individualism just did not exist as the people worked 14 hours a day to barely make a living. And if you look at the Middle Ages the masses didn't enjoy individuality either. Painters from that time didn't even sign their pictures as that was considered heretic.
So are we just going back to the old way of doing things?
Stallman's point isn't about selling software. He even says it's OK to sell software as long as you use a free license but of course there is little reason to pay for a GPL'd piece of software. Stallman's reasoning is about the licensing part. If you use a non-free license you deprive the user of his freedoms because most importantly he is not allowed to change the program. This is where the difference between Ford and software lies. If you want to change the engine in a Ford you can do so but if you get a binary-only program you cannot change anything. Granted only a limited number of people know how to program but that is besides the point because if you want to change something you can learn how to change it. There is noone holding you back. There are other reasons to why you should write free software but this one is the most important.
You have made a very,very important point.
This shows how the public is being controlled by
the mainstream-media. Even in a free medium like
the Internet most people will not get information
that is "inappropriate" for them because they have
no idea how to get it.
But what I find is the saddest part is that 50%
of the people living over here in Europe will not
learn about it either. America is just to nice
a projection plane for any hopes and desires. And
the commercial media takes advantage of that.