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Stallman Calls Ubuntu Spyware; Asks FLISOL Not to Recommend It at Events in South America ~pj | 188 comments | Create New Account
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Stallman Calls Ubuntu Spyware; Asks FLISOL Not to Recommend It at Events in South America ~pj
Authored by: PJ on Monday, March 25 2013 @ 08:08 AM EDT
You are greatly mistaken. He definitely isn't
communist. I asked him once, and he is not.

He believes in sharing knowledge. So do scientists.
Doctors, for example, who do research share it with
other doctors, so that when you go to the doctor
with a problem one man in the world has figured out
and solved, you don't have to die because your
personal doctor didn't get to read the paper about
it.

That isn't communism. It's science.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Stallman Calls Ubuntu Spyware; Asks FLISOL Not to Recommend It at Events in South America ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, March 29 2013 @ 12:18 PM EDT
Actually you are quite mistaken. Far from being communist (i.e. centrally
planned, communal) as you suggest, Free Software under the GPL is perhaps the
purest form of a free market which exists in the world.

Why do I say that: - because as in any free market, it is based on the exchange
of values between willing participants. Each developer exchanges something of
value (in this case, the ability to release a closed source version of his or
her code), and in return receives something of value (the ability to use all
other software licensed under the GPL).

Another thing to note is that the developer retains ownership of his or her
code. He or she is free at any time to end the licensing agreement, and stop
releasing the source of his or her code. Of course the quid-pro-quo is then that
the developer may no longer use any other GPL code in his or her program.

Communism would be more akin to a law that states that all code must be released
as public domain code.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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