Re: [ox-en] Book project
- From: Russell McOrmond <russell flora.ca>
- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 21:35:38 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 19 Jan 2003, MJ Ray wrote:
You are doubtless right about the number of programmers: it serves the rich
countries much better to have barriers to entry, such as scarcity of
established programs to learn from and work on. Free software doesn't allow
this and levels the playing field a bit.
Industrial-era economics (Or whatever the label is we want to use here)
is based on the economics of scarcity -- something has value when it is
restricted. Free Software fundamentally changes this, not only because
the software itself has 'use value' that is independent of any claimed
'sale value', but that programs and programmers are no longer made
artificially scarce.
Now this is where I disagree with this attempt at proof: although you
say one is paying for the labour, the value of that labour is vested in
the program (therefore it is not gratis, because it has a price), which
one then buys.
I disagree with your disagreement ;-)
The value in the software is in the 'use value', not in the 'sale
value'. I disagree with Raymond on many things, but I believe his
discussion under the theme of "the Software Manufacturing myth" is very
relevant.
Labour is vested into software, but the value of the software is based
on what it can do, not based on its existence (or its sale value). If
the carpenter analogy doesn't work for you as you then have a physical
'bookcase' you can sell, then think more of a carpenter that *teaches* you
how to make the bookcase. You can re-use that non-rivalrous education,
and the value of knowledge in an educational context increases as it is
shared.
Do teachers get paid? Is education 'gratis'? Whether or not it is
'libre' or not is the critical question - whether you can find educators
willing to teach people without any compensation is an entirely different
question.
I find much of the rest of this thread rather confusing in seeming to
suggest that if something is 'libre' it automatically becomes 'gratis'.
Free/libre markets may bring the price of software development, education,
or other such services lower, but except for very specific volunteer
circumstances this does not mean it is gratis.
As has been said many times in other forums: "Free Software may be
free, but it isn't cheap".
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be eye-glasses,
VCR's, or personal computers, must be under the control of the citizen
and not a third party. -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/
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