Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Free Software as Property"All property relations in the past have continually been subject to historical change consequent upon the change in historical conditions" (The Communist Manifesto)."The Tao abides in non-action, Yet nothing is left undone" (Lao Tzu). Introduction.This final chapter is about Free Software.It will provide a detailed analysis of what Free Software is and how it came to be a global social movement.There is a clear and deeply embedded normative element to the Free Software movement in that it posits community as a desirable alternative to private control over software and information and knowledge in general.In that sense, the Free Software movement reverses the process from commoning to privatisation: commoning substitutes for privatisation on normative grounds.This normative element is articulated in the GNU General Public License, which is a legal document, more precisely a software license, that defines the Free Software community.The reversal of this process -from privatisation and to commons -is in part a struggle over software values and the dignity of hackers, suggesting that we may understand the Free Software struggle as part of the beginning of history (cf.De Angelis 2007) 58 .58 As opposed to the neoliberal idea of the "end of history".
Author: John Martin Pedersen
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Science Applications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1861656027