Ignorant writing

[Paul Lussier]

Bruce Dawson <jbd at codemeta.com> writes:

> Ah, you're someone who grew up cowered by the cold war! Your definition
> of communism appears colored by that experience.

No, my definition of communism is colored by the definition of communism.
Wikipedia has a mostly accurate definition:

  Communism is an ideology that promotes establishment of a classless,
  stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means
  of production...

F/OSS if you really want to whittle down to what it promotes in
political terms is very far from communism.  F/OSS, if anything,
promotes the establishment of a classful social organization based on
merit and skill.  It welcomes anyone of any skill, social, economic,
or political level and invites them to use, change, and redistribute
the software.  But there are very clear "class lines" drawn in the
sand.  There are 'developers', 'sysadmins', 'users', 'newbies', etc.

And there is no 'common ownership' of anything.  There is very clear
ownership (the code belongs to those who have written it), and very
clear terms of use, access, and rights (all are granted specific
rights to use, access, change, and redistribute).

> Also communism and capitalism are two different fruits (ala apples
> and oranges) - communism is a political idealogy, and capitalism is
> an economic idealogy.

Exactly.  And that's my point.  They are opposing forces, however.
Capitalism is anti-communist.  Capitalism embraces the concept of
private ownership, which is antithetical to communism.

> Personally, I think both are bug-ridden implementations

I wasn't espousing that either was perfect :)

> What word would you use in place of "neocommunist"? Anarchists? Rebel?

How about "software developers dissatisfied with the current state of
the legal software landscape".  (hey, there's a reason I don't write
copy for movies :)

F/OSS, though very much of a politically driven movement with it's own
agenda is not about market-force ideologies like capitalism and
communism (yes, I know, communism not directly a market-related
ideology, but it is heavily influenced by, and heavily influences the
markets where it is embraced).

F/OSS is about changing access-rights to source code.  It is about
sharing knowledge.  There is nothing about economics in the F/OSS
movement.  There are those who will use the F/OSS movement for their
own market-related agendas, but that is not to be confused with the
F/OSS movement itself.

> Keep in mind that Stallman is frequently referred to as a communist,

He's frequently referred to as a lot of things, most of them not
overly acceptable for use in public :) Doesn't make it so.

> I believe the word "communist" is mentioned several times in the movie.

I would expect it to be.  But that doesn't mean that "hackers,
neocommunists and entrepreneurs" have banded to together :) And it
doesn't make the description any more or less accurate.

I also object to them characterizing the movie as being about
unseating the Microsoft Monopoly.  The F/OSS movement is not about any
given company, it's about the crappy software-development and legal
practices employed by the entire software industry.

-- 
Seeya,
Paul