Richard Stallman and GNU - political extremist
> you might take a look at the philosophy behind Free Software
Well, I've read the GNU ideological material before and am entirely familiar with what it advocates.
As a property rights advocate and observer of the national historical experience I disagree with practically every point espoused by GNU. Sure, ideas benefit society and in time all ideas eventually become part of the civilization knowledge base. Yet the originators of ideas should have opportunity to profit from their particular advancements. Software is a product that can cost extraordinary amounts to produce (cost of replication is an entirely different and somewhat irrelevant matter). It's no different than any physical product that is conceived, made, and sold to the audience of those that believe they could stand to benefit from said product in some manner.
GNU: "The system of owners of software encourages software owners to produce something - but not what society really needs. And it causes intangible ethical pollution that affects us all."
Actually for those who create commercial software that is not what society really needs, they soon learn of their error by the feedback mechanism of the marketplace. Notice the shear arrogance and conceit of Stallman/GNU as they assert to be wiser than everyone else such that they truly know what it is society really needs as pertaining to the production of software. And the silly appeal to some purposely vague "ethical pollution" - the hallmark reasoning tactic of a conceited group that sets out to assert its moral superiority over everyone else via innuendo.
GNU: "The economic argument for owners is erroneous"
I have no problem with folk that want to write software and give it away for free and share it with a community. People should certainly enjoy the freedom to do as they want in that regard. However to GNU, the so-called "freedom" that they espouse is really only in the fascist terms that they envision it. The true believer fanatics of the GNU creed would prefer that all software be created under the terms and conditions that they advocate. The continuing of existence of a commercial software marketplace of the traditional manner disturbs them deeply - it practically drives Stallman into conniptions.
GNU: "Society also needs freedom. When a program has an owner, the users lose freedom to control part of their own lives."
This is the standard line of all political socialism. The practical problem with socialism, of course, is that it is entirely too one-sided in terms of who has rights. True civil society is founded on a means to arrive at balanced relations between societal members. Hence users of software shouldn't be absolute in their rights as the GNU political ideology would have, but instead there needs to be a balance between those who create/fashion/fabricate and those that benefit by its acquisition/use. Private property rights and the marketplace is the means that societies achieve civil balance between differing parities and thus promote the greatest welfare.
GNU: "It also states that the purpose of copyright is to promote progress---not to reward authors. Copyright does reward authors somewhat, and publishers more, but that is intended as a means of modifying their behavior."
Well, here we have at least a cryptic (and grudging) admission that profit motive was what was considered by the Founders as the best means to promote human progress. The Founders were realist and thus sought how to best fashion government and its rules to the nature of man. The Founders were very wise by and large. Stallman, though, is nothing but a political extremist and his politics is counter to the bulwark of what the Founders fashioned.
Well, I've read the GNU ideological material before and am entirely familiar with what it advocates.
As a property rights advocate and observer of the national historical experience I disagree with practically every point espoused by GNU. Sure, ideas benefit society and in time all ideas eventually become part of the civilization knowledge base. Yet the originators of ideas should have opportunity to profit from their particular advancements. Software is a product that can cost extraordinary amounts to produce (cost of replication is an entirely different and somewhat irrelevant matter). It's no different than any physical product that is conceived, made, and sold to the audience of those that believe they could stand to benefit from said product in some manner.
GNU: "The system of owners of software encourages software owners to produce something - but not what society really needs. And it causes intangible ethical pollution that affects us all."
Actually for those who create commercial software that is not what society really needs, they soon learn of their error by the feedback mechanism of the marketplace. Notice the shear arrogance and conceit of Stallman/GNU as they assert to be wiser than everyone else such that they truly know what it is society really needs as pertaining to the production of software. And the silly appeal to some purposely vague "ethical pollution" - the hallmark reasoning tactic of a conceited group that sets out to assert its moral superiority over everyone else via innuendo.
GNU: "The economic argument for owners is erroneous"
I have no problem with folk that want to write software and give it away for free and share it with a community. People should certainly enjoy the freedom to do as they want in that regard. However to GNU, the so-called "freedom" that they espouse is really only in the fascist terms that they envision it. The true believer fanatics of the GNU creed would prefer that all software be created under the terms and conditions that they advocate. The continuing of existence of a commercial software marketplace of the traditional manner disturbs them deeply - it practically drives Stallman into conniptions.
GNU: "Society also needs freedom. When a program has an owner, the users lose freedom to control part of their own lives."
This is the standard line of all political socialism. The practical problem with socialism, of course, is that it is entirely too one-sided in terms of who has rights. True civil society is founded on a means to arrive at balanced relations between societal members. Hence users of software shouldn't be absolute in their rights as the GNU political ideology would have, but instead there needs to be a balance between those who create/fashion/fabricate and those that benefit by its acquisition/use. Private property rights and the marketplace is the means that societies achieve civil balance between differing parities and thus promote the greatest welfare.
GNU: "It also states that the purpose of copyright is to promote progress---not to reward authors. Copyright does reward authors somewhat, and publishers more, but that is intended as a means of modifying their behavior."
Well, here we have at least a cryptic (and grudging) admission that profit motive was what was considered by the Founders as the best means to promote human progress. The Founders were realist and thus sought how to best fashion government and its rules to the nature of man. The Founders were very wise by and large. Stallman, though, is nothing but a political extremist and his politics is counter to the bulwark of what the Founders fashioned.
posted by rogerv at
11:40 PM
|
5 comments
