No future without freedom!

No future without freedom!

Posted Dec 5, 2002 10:41 UTC (Thu) by libra (guest, #2515)
Parent article: No future in proprietary software (ZDNet)

Opinions are still divided, and I see people just using software because it does something they need, not because it is a good software (a software well conceived, that allow people working on it to be paid normaly, that is secure ...).

Those people must take other parameters into account. To make an analogy with an economic rising topic we could speak of M. Stallman position as the application of the principles of "sustainable development" to software and information technology.
What M. Stallman notices is that :
- proprietary software suppress freedom of choice (choice depends of price and is thus reduced)
- proprietary software reduces opportunity of evolution (you can not make the software evolve yourself, and even paying the company would not garantize anything)
- proprietary software prevents access to knowledge and understanding because everything is hidden
- proprietary software makes you dependant of the good will of unreliable people
- proprietary software forbids you to tell how you want things to be
- proprietary software forces you to adapt your behavior and your work to it, instead of adapting itself to what you need
- proprietary software costs a lot of money unrelated to any service given back to the customer (how could company selling them become so rich otherwise?)
- proprietary software steals the rights of those writing it to the only benefits of software companies

The problems mentionned here are similar to the problems that lead to the concept of "sustainable development".

Sustainable development comes from the evidence that poor countries can not develop if we have an unfair sharing of revenue. Preventing this development is detrimental to human rights and human progress and finaly is detrimental on the long term to those first using this way of domination of the economy.

Free software comes from the evidence that knowledge and science can not develop if we have an unfair sharing of access to knowledge and information tools. Preventing this development is detrimental to human rights and human progress and finaly is detrimental on the long term to those first using this way of domination of the information.

In my opinion information is even more important than economy because information is what brings freedom.
How can you enjoy your life if you are not free?
How can you be free if you can not know what your choices are?
How can you know your choices and decide if you do not have access to information?
How can you have access of information with proprietary software and excessive intelectual property rights?

All the wars, all the battles, have been wars and battles for freedom against domination. Today an industry that is no longer able to create added value try to steal freedom to be able to sell it back to you at the higher price. Freedom is not an utopy, it is a necessity, humanity can not evolve if it is not free.

We must not forget that the freedom of the ones stops where the freedom of the other starts. The law has mostly had to decide where the border between everyone freedom is. Today the law is mistaking its target, aiming at freedom and individuals instead of taking the defense of people and knowledge. This is a reaction of threat, not a reaction of courage and wisdom.

This is the start of great loss for humanity and for anyone who succumb to this facility now. I hope those fighting the wrong way won't have to regreat the loss of the highest value of mankind in the future: freedom.

If you are not convinced, then I hope for myself I won't have to regreat my failure to help you today, because it is an horrible idea to imagine you would not want to be free.

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