Oppression and exploitation may be profitable, but it's immoral:
.----
| I wanted to be able to live in freedom, I wanted to be able to
| change software that I didn't like, and I wanted to be able to
| cooperate with other people - distribute software to other people.
| I didn't want to accept being forbidden to share, but how could I
| possibly escape from that? The only straightforward way was - don't
| use a computer. There was no other way to escape from those
| restrictions in 1983. The only way there could be another way, was
| to build a free operating system, so that's what I decided to do.
|
| [...]
|
| I don't bring this issue up, from the viewpoint of why you,
| developing a program, would find it /advantageous/ to respect other
| people's freedom, because the point is it's your moral /duty/.
| You've got no right to trample other people's freedom. Non-free
| software's a social problem, it's wrong, and /that's/ what I argue.
| I argue that position with programmers or non-programmers, whoever
| it happens to be, because it's the same issue. And so what I tell
| people is not "whatever your aims are you will achieve them /more/
| if you respect other people's freedom", because that's not always
| true. There are /aims/ for which subjugating other people is
| advantageous ... but it isn't /right/.
`----
http://cisx1.uma.maine.edu/~wbackman/bsdtalk/bsdtalk132.ogg
But then since when did proprietary software developers ever care about
what is /right/? It's all about the money.
The slave owners will naturally argue for /their/ "right" to own slaves,
but does that mean they should /have/ that "right"? Is denying them that
"right" a hypocritical act of oppression. IOW, is morality subjective?
Many criticise the GPL as also being hypocritical, because it assures
one set of freedoms at the expense of others. They argue that these
liberations are actually restrictions, but such people fail to respect
the need to /protect/ freedom from exploitation.
So ultimately the question of freedom is actually a question of
morality. It's about choosing a side - good or evil. The good will
always argue for the freedom to do good, whilst the evil will always
argue for the freedom to do wrong. I don't see any form of compromise
that could remedy this dichotomy.
No doubt Microsoft and their protagonists see themselves as entirely
justified in their pursuit of market dominance, closed sources and
standards, and the annihilation of all competition; so is there really
any point in debating the issues with such people? They /know/ the
arguments, they understand the consequences, but they just don't care.
They have other, darker priorities.
And I believe this problem is endemic in /all/ society, not just among
the morally reprehensible, but also among the apathetic ... which it is
clear there are many. History has shown us that those apathetic about
their freedom, will rarely challenge the system that threatens that
freedom, until it is lost. With the release of ever-more Draconian
software such as Vista, perhaps now people are beginning to wake up to
the realities of proprietary software.
Let's hope so.
Microsoft may have all the money and power, but they only gained that
through consumer apathy, and the choices of a relatively few, to put it
euphemistically, less enlightened people. I don't believe that Free
Software advocates can ever convince the apathetic to care about freedom
(much less convince the morally reprehensible to mend their ways), but
it may be that we don't need to, since Microsoft themselves seem to be
doing such a fine job of jolting their own customers into a state of
awareness - driving them away and into the welcoming arms of GNU/Linux.
This is why I spend more time and effort criticising Microsoft, than
praising GNU/Linux. I'm not a salesman trying to peddle freedom to
disinterested customers, I'm someone who is trying to wake up the
sleeping slaves, and show them the horrors of the cage they're trapped
in. Then perhaps when I open the cage, they will walk out and become
free - whether or not they care.
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| "[Microsoft] are willing to lose money for years and years just to
| make sure that you don't make any money, either." - Bob Cringely.
| - http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2007/07/cringely-the-un.html
`----
Fedora release 7 (Moonshine) on sky, running kernel 2.6.22.1-41.fc7
04:58:53 up 66 days, 3:53, 3 users, load average: 0.03, 0.03, 0.00
|
|
