| ▲ | rhoopr 4 hours ago |
| > You have been so generous, so unreasonably, almost suspiciously generous, that you have made it possible for an entire global economy to run on software that nobody technically owns, maintained by people that nobody technically employs, governed by licenses that nobody technically reads. It is a miracle of human cooperation. It is also, from a fiduciary standpoint, completely insane. Funny but true. |
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| ▲ | killbot5000 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| It's funny that humans working together for mutual benefit via any other mechanism than regimented corporate slavery is considered insane. |
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| ▲ | boondongle 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The issue is how do you interact with other industries/trades who protect their profit making potential. Ok great - all software and networks are "free." How do you pay for Doctors and Plumbers and Electricians whose earnings are legally protected by the state but whose skill bases are also freely available to be used within the margin of error of a professional or a layman? Issues like this are great to have conversations about, but if people don't start broadening the scope very quickly, it just turns into the IT/CS worker's worth going to 0 in a world where others worth are protected. And history states, if only 1 group sees the threat, the remaining trades/industries will let it die. | | |
| ▲ | teachrdan 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | It's not clear to me what your argument has to do with the license laundering service that Malus (Malice?) is offering. Their stealing from the digital commons does nothing to address paying Doctors and Plumbers and Electricians. | | |
| ▲ | boondongle 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | It's directed at the person I replied to. It's not directed at the top level OP or Malus which is hilarious, monetized satire. Focusing overly on corporate structures or specific skills tends to miss the point of how value is assigned in a capitalistic structure when knowledge is cheap. Knowledge has been the capital used by the labor force for hundreds of years. The reason some jobs are resistant is 100% the result of legislation at that point, not anything unique about the job. "The Trades" seems to be the sales pitch used on the public. In the end they're just labor at that point since I can pump a 20 year old with a master electricians knowledge, keep one master on staff and fire every other person who hits that level when their earnings demand it in the same way we're firing many mid/upper level people in their 30's and 40's now instead of 50's and 60's which is the scenario in Tech today. Software/IT is just the quickest to be absorbed. Many other industries are just in the slow boil, not seeing it yet. |
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| ▲ | superxpro12 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The value from FOSS is the collaboration between all parties. There is a mutual agreement between all collaborating parties that "hey we ALL need these core fundamental building blocks of software. why dont we all collaborate in this open space?" And everyone wins. There is tremendous value in the Linux kernel, and these large open source programs. And this is basically an attack by corporations to attempt to privatize it all. It's nothing new. This is simply the latest example of capitalist "growth at any cost". We sailed past any immorality hazards a LONG time ago. |
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| ▲ | designerarvid 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Easily explained by the fact that writing some types of software and seeing people using it is fun. Some people take photos for free also. Doesn’t apply everywhere though. | | |
| ▲ | tavavex 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | What's this 'fun' you mention? As far as the incentives in our systems are concerned, anything that's not done in pursuit of monetary gain is certifiably insane. What really matters in life is using all the tricks, manipulation, abuse and loopholes to attain the biggest number in your asset counter. Anyone who doesn't follow the only thing that matters in life is alien, inhuman even. How do they not see it? |
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| ▲ | eru 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The quote above didn't mention corporations at all. | | |
| ▲ | saulpw 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | "nobody technically employs" strongly implies that this is not a corporate organization. | |
| ▲ | jedberg 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | " maintained by people that nobody technically employs" |
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| ▲ | einpoklum 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's not true (and also not funny): * Many of the people maintaining FOSS are paid to do so; and if we counted 'significance' of maintained FOSS, I would not be surprised if most FOSS of critical significance is maintained for-pay (although I'm not sure). * Publishing software without a restrictive license is not 'generous', it's the trivial and obvious thing to do. It is the restriction of copying and of source access that is convoluted, anti-social, and if you will, "insane". * Similarly, FOSS is not a "miracle" of human cooperation, and it what you get when it is difficult to sabotage human cooperation. The situation with physical objects - machines, consumables - is more of a nightmare than the FOSS situation is a miracle. (IIRC, an economist named Veblen wrote about the sabotaging role of pecuniary interests on collaborative industrial processes, about a century ago; but I'm not sure about the details.) * Many people read licenses, and for the short, paragraph-long licenses, I would even say that most developers read them. * It is not insane to use FOSS from a "fiduciary standpoint". |
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| ▲ | eru 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | > * Many people read licenses, and for the short, paragraph-long licenses, I would even say that most developers read them. Well, it's one thing to read licenses as a human and another to read them as a lawyer. That's why it's useful to pick one of the standard licenses that lawyers have already combed over, even if it's a long one like the GPL. |
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| ▲ | aprdm 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Isn't that the premise of Fallout ? |
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