User:AGNUcius

Hello, my given name is Patrick Anderson.

I am very interested in the http://Peerconomy.org/text/peer-economy.pdf paper.

Here is a slightly modified copy of a post I just made to http://Blog.P2PFoundation.net/new-book-on-the-expansion-of-peer-production-in-the-physical-economy/2007/09/21 (it won't appear there until 'approved').

Hello Christian,

I was very excited to read your paper, as I have been working on the same or a very similar thing since the late part of 1999.

In it you say "A new mode of production has emerged in the areas of software and content production during the last decades. This mode, which is based on sharing and cooperation, has spawned whole mature operating systems such as GNU/Linux ..."

Which seems to imply the importance of the GNU General Public License.

Later you say "Peer production thus fulfills the old Marxist postulate that "control over the means of production should be in the hands of the producers"."

But the GNU GPL is very clear in it's goal to insure the virtual Means of Production (source code) should be in the hands of the CONSUMERS.

When RMS speaks of freedom it is always about the User (consumer), not developer, author, producer, worker or owner.

For instance, http://GNU.org/philosophy/freedom-or-power.html says (emphasis is mine) "Proprietary software is an exercise of power. Copyright law today grants software developers that power, so they and only they choose the rules to impose on everyone else—a relatively few people make the basic software decisions for everyone, typically by denying their freedom.  When users lack the freedoms that define Free Software, they can't tell what the software is doing, can't check for back doors, can't monitor possible viruses and worms, can't find out what personal information is being reported (or stop the reports, even if they do find out).  If it breaks, they can't fix it; they have to wait for the developer to exercise its power to do so.  If it simply isn't quite what they need, they are stuck with it.  They can't help each other improve it."

And the recent interview "Three Minutes with Richard Stallman" at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137098-c,freeware/article.html says "With free software, the users are in control. Most of the time, users want interoperability, and when the software is free, they get what they want.  With non-free software, the developer controls the users.  The developer permits interoperability when that suits the developer; what the users want is beside the point."

If a "Mode of Production" is defined by who controls the "Means of Production", then the GNU Mode of Production is one in which the Consumers and NOT the Producers are at the helm.

What say ye to such a monkey wrench? I am continuing with this interesting read and plan to post more at a later time.

Thanks, Patrick Anderson

http://EcoComics.org