the Courts : Still at Bede : Act I Was Re: !@!Re: [Upd-discuss] On the 'Creative Commons': A Critique of the Commons without Commonalty

[Richard Stallman]

    >>>    > "We argue that the Creative Commons project on the whole fails to
    >>>    > confront and look beyond the logic and power asymmetries of the
    >>>    > present. It tends to conflate how the world is with what it could
    >>>    > be, with that we might want to be."
    >>>
    >>> That is stated in such an abstract way that I can only form a vague
    >>> idea of what their critique is.
    >>
    >> Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Others can judge for themselves whether my statements are clear.

    >> Calling for logic and a look at the assymetries of the power structure
    >> could hardly be be more clear.

Actually it doesn't call for logic.  It calls for "looking beyond the
logic...of the present."  I am not sure what that means.

However, thanks to your explanation, I understand what that "power
asymmetries" refers to.  I did not previously recognize it as a
reference to political inequality.

I still don't see how to relate the second sentence with what I know
about Creative Commons.

    >> As far as I can tell, the entire open source movement, whether you are
    >> tracing it back through programming to Stallman or though eBooks to me,
    >> is based on the logic of creating the symmetrical power structure only
    >> available through putting things on the Internet for all to download.

    >> I can't see what possible problem RMS could have with this.

For the free software movement, "symmetrical power structure" (I'd
rather say "equal rights") is indeed one part of our ethical ideals.
However, they have other parts too.  For instance, we believe that all
the users should have certain specific freedoms.  To subjugate
everyone equally would be symmetrical, but it is not a good outcome.

The open source philosophy does not concern itself with ethical
questions such as power structure.  That is why I do not support it.

The Internet is very helpful, but it is not crucial to the free
software movement, which was founded in 1983.  In the first years, we
had many users, and even contributors, who were not on the Internet.
We communicated using uucp, magtapes, and occasionally snail mail.