Open Source Power
"In hindsight I don't think any reasonable person can say that we're collectively better off. Democracy is losing, and tech is playing an undeniably outsized part in that."
I’m extremely on board with this whole essay.
“Since its inception the free and open source software movement has lacked a theory of change beyond the liberation of computer code. Liberation of human beings by way of a liberatory technology was always a secondary and oftentimes incompatible concern for Open Source, since laborers having agency of their work (and how it may be exploited) is in conflict with the inviolable liberties of an Open Source computer program.”
As the author points out, open source has facilitated an upwards transfer of wealth and power from contributors and project communities themselves to the larger companies that can make use of this free labor to enrich their own endeavors. In a world where tech has been enabling fascist autocrats in the building of anti-democratic movements and governments, that’s particularly troubling. And it’s dressed up as some kind of altruistic public good, even when the end user is causing great harm.
The traditional open source / free software demand that software be made available freely for any use feels outdated in the current context. It’s a very libertarian rather than pro-social view of the world. In our current world, it’s particularly worth re-examining permissive licenses and considering what they are actually permissive of.
The suggestion here is that commercial use by large corporations is charged for. I think that makes sense: it’s a way of funding development that also preserves the underlying availability of open software and the sustainability of building it. But I’d honestly go further.
Do open source maintainers want their software to be used by ICE, for example? You don’t have to allow it to be. There’s no magical law of the universe that means you lose part of your soul if you say “no”. Software is a creative work, and the software you build is your creative work. You get to decide who uses it and under what terms. It’s completely reasonable to apply your values in making those decisions.
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