[lbo-talk] Re: Purer Than Thou

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Tue Jan 23 19:52:58 PST 2007


On 1/24/07, bitch at pulpculture.org <bitch at pulpculture.org> wrote:
> >As far as I can tell, this argument reduces to the obvious observation
> >that the US economy doesn't seriously compensate [..] producers working
> >outside the system.
>
> free software isn't produced outside the system. it is thoroughly embedded
> in it because it depends on parents and employers to support free labor
> (put clothes on its back, roof over head, and bread and beer on their table).

My informal comments were in the context of prof Moglen's essays, which I pointed out earlier. Particularly "Anarchism Triumphant," where he discusses "anarchism as a mode of production." <http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_8/moglen/index.html#m3>

Now, in the sense that you mean, I expect we're basically in agreement. In fact, Stallman's "copyleft" itself is a subversive hack which depends on the same copyright laws it's undermining.


> The problem with FOSS evangelism is that it doesn't have much of a theory
> as to *why* people would voluntarily work like this. Right now, you have a
> status system and a "movement" that inculcates inductees into true
> believers who sacrifice for the greater good.

Eben Moglen does discuss this in Anarchism Triumphant. "Why do people make free software if they don't get to profit? Two answers have usually been given. One is half-right and the other is wrong, but both are insufficiently simple."

I've heard the theories you mention, presumably from the likes of Eric Raymond and Hans Reiser (though I don't personally read them, so I could be mistaken). But I've personally observed other motivations, which I could cite if you wish. In fact, it goes way back; Chomsky occasionally talks about similar motivations in the context of anarchism and Enlightenment thinkers (like von Humboldt).


> How would you reproduce such a thing on a grand scale?

Before I answer, what do you mean by grand scale? By many definitions, we're already there.

Or perhaps it's a similar question to, "How do we build a seriously democratic or independent press which compensates its workers reasonably well?" I think such questions occupy many peoples' thoughts.

Tayssir



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