Ignorant writing

[Bill McGonigle]

On Dec 11, 2007, at 13:05, Paul Lussier wrote:

> Well, yes.  But economics is not at the forefront of the movement.  It
> is not overly concerned with shifting economies or making a huge
> economic change or statement.

I think this is one of those blind-men-and-the-elephant things -  
FLOSS is what you take from it, or want it to be, for most people.

I happen to think it's a nexus of software development, economics,  
and game theory, and also an emergent property of the Internet.  Most  
of my clients get interested in it for the price, which is definitely  
an economic factor, and I do think that many participants are keen on  
freeing those who are being oppressed by the economic regimes which  
managed to monopolize the market for a couple decades (to David's  
point).

I do strongly agree with your assessment of FLOSS as being dependent  
on strong property rights, though I'd also allow that many adherents  
would rather see intellectual property go away and simply use the  
existing system as a convenience.  The big problem with Communism is  
that humans are largely incompatible.  I heard a reading recently of  
the address at the first Thanksgiving (that we remember annually,  
supposedly), which was basically a rant against the failings of their  
attempt at Communism that lead to apathy and starvation, and their  
Thanks that they'd since embraced the principles of Locke and had so  
much surplus now that people were rewarded for their labor that they  
were doing a fine trade with the Indians.

So, as to your original point, "a group of computer hackers,  
neocommunists and entrepreneurs" is probably true - there are  
probably Gypsies, Zoroastrians, Masons, Mormons, Vegetarians, and  
Elevator Mechanics working on FLOSS too, but that hardly matters.   
So, along those lines, singling out neocommunists is likely an  
attempt at Guilt by Association.  And Netflix streaming video only  
works on IE.  Coincidence?  ;)

-Bill

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