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To: risk
I think the cold and slithery one's big error is to try to frame all human exchange which has an extrinsic value in terms of money.

The open source movement is, IMHO, a post capitalist phenomena, and could NEVER originate from a socialist economy, because open-ness and sharing which arises from individuals with open source, more or less SPONTANEOUSLY, is exactly opposite the state imposed sharing so characteristic of planned economies.

In a sense, state imposed sharing strangles spontaneous/open sharing by individuals in its crib, while capitalism creates the surplus and good will which allows skillfull and highly competent individuals to develop quality stuff and GIVE IT AWAY just for the heck of it, for personal satisfaction, respect amongst peers, or perhaps to set up a marketable name for themselves which will eventually lead to a higher paying job...

George Gilder in Wealth and Poverty is much closer to the mark where he shows that giving away the goods and providing a service to people is actually the pure essence of capitalism.

46 posted on 09/01/2003 11:35:11 AM PDT by chilepepper (The map is not the territory -- Alfred Korzybski)
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To: chilepepper
"The open source movement is, IMHO, a post capitalist phenomena, and could NEVER originate from a socialist economy, because open-ness and sharing which arises from individuals with open source, more or less SPONTANEOUSLY, is exactly opposite the state imposed sharing so characteristic of planned economies."

I'm gonna both agree and disagree with you. Certainly the open source phenomenon could never originate from a "Marxist-style" socialist economy, but it is identically the same as the "community" economy practiced in frontier days (think of barn-raisings). One gives of his efforts to others in hopes of gaining a similar contribution FROM others at some future time. I think you would be hard put to say that THAT "economic style" is "post-capitalist".

50 posted on 09/01/2003 12:52:33 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel)
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To: chilepepper
I don't mind giving software or source code away. But I believe if you do it should be TRUELY given away with little
(BSD/MIT) or NO (Public Domain) strings attached. Even if it is not communist the GPL is little more than a Microsoft
EULA on source code with the same legal doubletalk and "poison pills". It is NOT Freedom as in beer, speech or anything else.
51 posted on 09/01/2003 12:59:21 PM PDT by Coral Snake (Biting commies, crooks, traitors, islamofascists and any other type of Anti American)
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To: chilepepper
Thanks for the reading suggestion; I found a review of George Gilder's Wealth and Poverty here: http://www.usd.edu/~rheitman/review7.htm

Challenging ideas.
68 posted on 09/01/2003 4:40:26 PM PDT by risk
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