if you ever sue another for writing software that “dynamically provides a news feed”, you’re going to piss a lot of people off, including me. Oh, and don’t think for a second that the extortion of cross-licensing with other fish will go unnoticed.
Caroline McCarthy has more details here.
Used from here without permission from Calamities of Nature.
According to David Murphy, there’s probably no reason to care about Free and Open Source software. He defends this apathy by noting that you’re probably not an IT decision maker or computer programmer. While that’s true, it’s as odd as saying that there’s no reason to care about free speech because chances are you’re not a public speaker or journalist.
Here, David neglects the value Free software creates through the interplay between individual and society. One may not know how to secure a system against back-doors or viruses, but the community does. And while no community is perfect, that transparency is more effective than the Symantecs and Nortons who simply throw spackle at the cracks. Users may not know how to defend themselves against spyware, but communities can’t conspire to keep whistle-blowers quiet. One might not derive any personal income from using software, but it’s plain to see that simply using software generates value via the network effect. One may not care if one’s documents suffer from vendor lock-in, but one can see the implicit pressure put on others when those files are circulated.
It’s not that David’s arguments are false per se, but that they’re voiced entirely within a “me” bubble.
I’m not committed to Flattr yet as I haven’t seen anything more than the introductory video. It looks promising. I would like to be able to (with just a few clicks) send money to software projects, artists, and writers.
The fact that Peter Sunde is behind this makes it even more intriguing.
So the CEO who pooh-poohs privacy now wants to add an email service? Great, what’s next? A Facebook version of Paypal?
