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Again the 'slavery' non-sense.Again the 'slavery' non-sense.Posted Jan 20, 2012 14:55 UTC (Fri) by fb (subscriber, #53265)In reply to: Again the 'slavery' non-sense. by RobSeace Parent article: LCA: Addressing the failure of open source
> I have no idea why you keep bringing this strange analogy up... How is that in any way similar? What "minority" is being insulted here? The "minority" of proprietary software? I'm pretty sure that's like calling a white male a "honkey"; no one cares or is insulted, including the white male in question!
As I understand, the intended meaning of this comment is both that _users_ of proprietary software are 'slaves', as well as producers/sellers of such software are 'slavers'.
>> To me that is just the same cheap game of 'associate something you don't
> And, here I somewhat agree with you... It's kind of silly, and surely there's a better metaphor... (The "rent vs. own" concept seems to work well...) However, at the same time, I also think it's silly to get all worked up over a commonly used term as if it were the most offensive thing ever uttered by another human being... It's not offensive in any way that I can see... It's just silly...
I don't think this is silly, as we have a group determined to associate 'slavery' with a whole bunch of honest working people.
But I think we can agree to disagree on it.
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Again the 'slavery' non-sense. Posted Jan 20, 2012 15:37 UTC (Fri) by RobSeace (subscriber, #4435) [Link]
> As I understand, the intended meaning of this comment is both that _users_
> of proprietary software are 'slaves', as well as producers/sellers of such > software are 'slavers'.
Yes... So, the "insult" (if you can call it that) is being directed at the sellers of proprietary software... I'm sorry, but I'm having a hard time viewing them as a downtrodden "minority" of any sort... The users aren't being insulted; they're being described as victims... At one point in history, perhaps calling someone a "slave" could be meant as an insult, but these days it's clearly meant to describe someone who is a victim of whatever is "enslaving" them, be it drugs, boring drudge work, or yes, proprietary software...
> I don't think this is silly, as we have a group determined to associate
Well, it's not like they just invented the metaphorical usage of the term... They are merely carrying on a similar usage that's well established... I don't think anyone takes the usage literally, and imagines that software makers are out there with whips beating their users and chaining them to desks or something... Everyone knows it's a metaphor, even if it's somewhat of an overblown, reaching one... As I said, it seems exactly equivalent to me to calling copyright infringers "pirates"... Both are outrageous metaphorical stretches of the original meaning of the words... But, neither seems worth getting upset about...
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