There is also the unstated assumption of a universal ethic. :)<br><br>Is there? Shall we continue in alt.philosophy?<br clear="all"><br>======================<br>Jordan Peacock<br><a href="mailto:hewhocutsdown@gmail.com">hewhocutsdown@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://hewhocutsdown.blogspot.com">hewhocutsdown.blogspot.com</a><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM, p.daniels <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:carl1086@morris.umn.edu">carl1086@morris.umn.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">On Tuesday October 21 2008 04:04:41 pm benjamin gramlich wrote:</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> I think it's difficult to make the case that free software helps to</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> preserve our personal freedom. Free software really only benefits those</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> who have the knowledge to make use of the access to source code.</p>
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</div><p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">This is demonstrably false. I don't code. At all. I haven't written an original line of code since the fourth grade. But when I found a bug (or rather, a "mis-feature") in my music player (gmusicbrowser, released under gpl3) I wrote the developer an email saying "here's my problem," and in the next version it was fixed. If it hadn't been, I could have asked someone else who knows perl to help me fix it, or paid someone else who knows perl to do it for me. In a nutshell, I didn't even look at the code, and I (in a personal and immediate way) benefited from the free software development process.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> The true threat to my freedom is my dependence upon another's generosity</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> for my employment and thus my livelihood. Or illegal wire tapping. Or</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">> gerrymandering.</p>
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</div><p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">Let's flip those second two examples just slightly. "Wire-tapping" can be trivially accomplished these days with the non-free software in your own phone. The 21st century equivalent of gerrymandering seems to be non-free software in voting machines.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">Would you say that those are threats to your freedom?</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 0px;">-p.</p></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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