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Re: Documentation Standards was Re: [ox-en] UserLinux



On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 08:44:09PM [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], Martin Hardie wrote:
On Monday 08 December 2003 17:41, august wrote:
software needs to be free because people need freedom. How the
software gets produced isn't really the important bit.

people need freedom?  huh?  what does that mean?  sounds a bit
like a certain world leader talking.

In my quote, you've clipped the context and the reference. I was
referencing the FSF and their definition of free software so with the
context you'd understand that I was talking about freedom as the
*specific* and *limited* freedoms enumerated in the free software
definition. This is clearly not the "freedom" discussed by the certain
world leader as he has and does have serious problems with the former.

If you want to be critical about the use and abuse of the term
"freedom," that's fine. It's clearly overused and abused. I probably
won't disagree with your critique but, I still think it's a useful
term (in more than one sense even!).

Freedom in terms of Free Software means something in particular and
it's never been unambiguously obvious -- the terms has always been
contested and any new term will probably be equally contested as
well. Call that a limitations in the terms (you wouldn't be the first)
but allusions to George Bush may get you shock points but (IMHO) they
aren't going to win you any arguments.


The whole talk af freedom is freedom within the confines of the
American dream.

What do you mean by "the whole talk of freedom is freedom?" Freedom in
terms of free software is broadly defined and *explicitly* apolitical
(too much so in many opinions). You have people on the far left, far
right, and all kinds of spaces in between working together on this.

To tie Floss to American freedom is to tie it to Imperial capital. I
am glad some people here are staring to question these high priests
and their rhetoric and seeing Floss (we will have to find a new name
sometime) as a form of community knowledge production.

As I alluded to above, I'm not sure the term "Free" is so diluted that
we need to choose another name (or that doing so doesn't hurt us more
than it helps us). You're free to disagree in this regards.

Regards,
Mako

-- 
Benjamin Mako Hill
mako debian.org
http://mako.yukidoke.org/

_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/



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