[Fsf-friends] Freedom of Knowledge and Development

Krishna Pagadala krishnaact@yahoo.com
Sun Dec 26 17:55:12 IST 2004


Hi All,
   I have been deeply influenced by the Free(dom)
Software Movement, and I wanted to share my thoughts
on the relationship between Freedom and Knowledge (as
I see it).
   I welcome all feedback positive and negative.
Thanks
Krishna
             Freedom of Knowledge and Development
               Free(dom) Software: A case study

Free Software
-------------
  Free software is software distributed under licenses
that can be thought of as code in the software
commons. It is also software that represents a set of
values and
philosophy.


What is it?
-----------
  It is software that guarantees the user a few
freedoms. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of
freedom, for the users of the software:
 * The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
   (freedom 0)
 * The freedom to study how the program works, and
   adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the
   source code is a precondition for this.
 * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help
   your neighbor (freedom 2).
 * The freedom to improve the program, and release
   your improvements to the public, so that the whole
   community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the
   source code is a precondition for this. 


A brief history of Free(dom) Software
-------------------------------------
  The software developed in the 1970's when Computer
Science was a new field was almost always Free
Software. However as the monetary importance of
Software grew, most of the software came to be
distributed with the above mentioned Freedoms stripped
and in machine understandable form only.
  Richard M. Stallman valued those four freedoms, and
started the GNU project as an alternative to Freedom
stripped software. Later (in 1985) he started the
Free Software Foundation to
1) Promote development and use of Free(dom) software,
free (as in freedom) documentation.
2) Spread awareness of the ethical and political
issues of freedom in the use of software.
  Since then Free(dom) Software has come a long way,
with contributions from GNU project, academia,
individuals and businesses.


The distance Free(dom) Software has traveled
--------------------------------------------
  Today GNU/Linux operating system is used 67% of web
servers, 28% of all servers, and on the desktop it has
overtaken Apple with 3% market share in 2003.
  GNU/Linux runs on cell phones to mainframes, in
the social context, almost all of the Non Governmental
Organizations websites are running on Free(dom)
software.


Commons
-------
  The importance of various commons is not well
recognised, and is all too easy to ignore. Such an
ignorance of the utility of the commons leads to a
weak defense and to the aggressive exploitation of
commons by the few. The "Tragedy of the Commons" being
the classic example.
  There are two types of software commons. They are
(for lack of better words).

1) Copyleft'ed commons
   Copyleft is a way to defend and increase the
commons. Copyleft is a general method for making a
program free software and requiring all modified and
extended versions of the program to be free software
as well. Software in copylefted commons cannot be made
into proprietary software. I will call this type of
commons "CLcommons"

2) Plain vanilla commons 
   Software in the commons that can be used by anybody
to do anything including taking it proprietary. Public
domain software falls into this category. I will call
this type of commons just "commons"


Law
---
  There are three distinct concepts that form the
underlying legal basis for all software.

1) Trade secrets
    Will ignore this, as it has nothing to with free
software. Most proprietary software is a trade secret.

2) Patents
    Read "hindrance". The original idea of patents was
to give exclusive rights to an inventor of a
non-obvious idea. Nowadays it is a more a pain than
gain for society. Has nothing to do with free
software, except insofar as free software can act as
prior art, or making some algorithms unimplementable
as free software.
    The current term of patents is 20 years minimum.

3) Copyrights
     For the issues involved and background read
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html

     The underlying basis and reason for the existence
of copyright law is the following article in US
constitution.
  "[Congress shall have the power] to promote the
  progress of science and the useful arts, by securing
  for limited times to authors and inventors the
  exclusive right to their respective writings and
  discoveries." 

  The current term of copyrights is 95 years for
corporations and for real people it is life + 70
years.
  After the copyright term expires all the software
goes into the public domain. In general copyright is
about hoarding, while FSF encourages a growth in the
commons using copyleft licenses. 

  Patents and Copyrights were originally supposed to
protect a species called "the lone inventor" from
businesses. However this species has long since gone
extinct, sadly having been digested by corporations.


Economics
---------
  GCC, Apache, Tcl/Tk and various other free software
tools and software have come to dominate the software
scene. They have been found to be good tools for the
job at hand. What can explain the quality and the cost
(zero) of free software?

1) Quality
  Knowledge grows when widely shared, and the more
people possessing knowledge the faster the innovations
come.
  Software development is charecterized by the low
cost of equipment and absence of physical limits, thus
keeping transaction costs low. Free software due to
its nature, tends to have a large user base who run
the software, some of them give feedback in the form
of bug reports/patches/feature requests. The user
community plays an important role in the development
of the given software, in some cases interested
parties pay to have software improved for their
particular purpose. These ad-hoc improvements improve
the quality of free software to such an extent that
few business selling proprietary software can survive
such competition.

2) Cost
  Since there are no restrictions on distributing the
source code, the cost of accquiring a program is the
cost of a CD, or the cost of a free download etc. I
must add that although the software is free, if you
want to adapt the program for your own needs or want
some guarantees that it will work then you pay.


Philosophy
----------
  Software is not property in the ordinary sense of
the term. You can have the cake (software) and eat it
too (use the software). Somebody else eating the cake
(using the software) does not diminish your enjoyment
of the cake (software), as it would with a real world
object. That is why thinking about software as
property is starting in the wrong direction.
  
  "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we
exchange apples then you and I will still each have
one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea
and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have
two ideas." --  George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950))


  Restrictions on Software is a restriction on the
freedoms of people. The restrictions are legitimate
only if a greater public interest is served by those
restrictions.

Misinterpreting Copyright by Richard Stallman is an
important essay on freedoms in the knowledge domain.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html


Motivations for developing free software
----------------------------------------
  One of the best essays I came across on free
software and motivations for developing free software
is
"Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of
Copyright" by Eben Moglen, he is legal counsel to the
FSF, the essay can be found at 
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/anarchism.html

An excerpt:
  So I offer you Moglen's Corollary to Faraday's Law:
"If you wrap the Internet around every brain on the
planet, knowledge flows in the network." That's
induction, and the only question is, what is the
resistance of the wire? Resistance, according to
Moglen's Corollary to Ohm's Law, is directly
proportional to the field strength of the intellectual
property system. Neither of these corollaries is my
property, and you may copy them freely and without
credit. I say, "resist the resistance." 

The reasons for developing free software are
1) Humanistic reasons
   People who think about the direction of their
lives,
chose to contribute to humanity, and have fun doing
it.
   "Free software" developers including FSF/RMS fall
in this category.
2) Fun
   "Just for fun", as a book by Linus Torvalds goes.
People who don't generally think in terms of their
work helping others, but "Because we can" as Moglen
says, because humans have the urge for creativity.
"Open Source" developers fall into this category.
3) Money
   People for whom this is a job.

  Of course there are no straight line distinctions
between the three groups, most of the developers are
motivated by all three reasons above. With each of the
above reasons motivating people to various degrees of
action.


Interested Parties
------------------
There are three distinct interested parties.
1) Corporations
   Corporations are in the business of making money,
they don't have a stance on free software except in so
far as it affects them.
   They are very happy using it when it decreases
their
costs or say increases their revenues. Corporations
completely reject the underlying philosophy of
sharing/caring for you neighbour. They will never be
caught dead saying "free software" they only say "open
source".

2) Open source community
   By and large a group of people who understand the
that freedom of software leads to development, and
support it.
   However they do not beleive in the ethics of the
Free(dom) Software Movement.

3) Free software foundation/free software community
   FSF created the initial free software tools, and
works on developing free software, helps with legal
issues and enforcing the GNU licenses. As well as
bringing the various issues regarding digital works
onto the public agenda.

4) Finally there are "the people", among them nobody
has heard of FSF/RMS, let alone being at a point of
understanding the underlying ethical, moral,
economical   and political issues.


Current political battles
-------------------------
The battles that are being fought are.
What the corporations would like to have
1) Software patents in the rest of the world
2) Digital Rights Management
3) Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

What the free software community likes.
1) General population adopting free software and being

  aware of the various issues involved.
2) Shorter Copyrights with really "limited times"
   determined on a per industry basis. 5 years for
   software would be good.
3) Governments adopting free software.


Broader Implications
--------------------
   Of course the above arguments apply not only to
software but also to all knowledge. All of science and
culture have been enriched by the free flow of
knowledge, and by every individual having the freedom
to use the knowledge for any purpose whatsoever. I am
happy that I do not have to pay Newton every time I
use "Laws of motions" that he formulated.
   Taking it a step further copyrights, patents, trade
secrets must be limited to sensible timeframes, of say
a few years. After which all of the works in the above
mentioned categories must be released into the public
domain.
   Finally all ideas must enter the commons, whether
they be in terms of manufacturing specs, software
code, design docs etc.


Threads
-------
  There are various underlying threads in this essay,
the basic paradigm is the "Partnership paradigm"
wherein which it is better to cooperate than to
dominate. I also borrow happily from Amartya Sen,
whose works amply demonstrate that illiteracy is the
cause of poverty and not vice versa, likewise the
bigger the intellectual commons the better off we all
are. A third thread is "Small is beautiful", free
software fits the philosophy of empowerment.


Attribution
-----------
I have freely copied ideas from FSF and RMS, many
thanks to them. An early draft has been reviewed by
Ciaran O'Riordan, thank you Ciaran. Jean Dreze and
Amartya Sen's works have played an important role in
helping me to understand the world, many thanks to
them.


Resources
---------
Misinterpreting Copyright by Richard Stallman
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html

"Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of
Richard Stallman"
http://www.fsf.org

Philosophy of free software
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/

A debate in the British parliament on Copyrights.
http://www.baen.com/library/palaver4.htm




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