Free and Open Source Software

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Topic Owners: dulles,Ayelet

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Precis

Free software seems to have a dual-nature: it can be both software libre or software gratis. To put it in the usual terms, software can be "free as in speech" or "free as in beer". These terms are useful for helping us understand the different motivations and interests surrounding the Free / Open Source Software (F/OSS) movement. Richard Stallman assets that software (libre) is important, and that this value is paramount. Meanwhile, companies like RedHat appear to be trying desperately to turn a profit on a free (gratis) product with a new business model. When somebody says, "I use free software", do they mean software libre or software gratis, and why? Clearly, any discussion of the F/OSS movement absolutely must explore the division between "free as in speech" and "free as in beer".

The libre/gratis distinction seems to relate to a sort of war between Free Culture and Permission Culture, which might be recast as a clash between the drive of economic development and the drive of cultural development. Of course, the law still respects copyright and patents, so Free Culture is a long way from a victory. Stil, software libre has managed to turn the tools of copyright upon themselves with the invention of the copyleft licensing system. Given the usefulness of such licenses, and their availability, maybe the law of copyrights doesn't need to adjust at all in order to account for free culture.

Maybe casting the division as one between economics and culture is just a divisive technique. Perhaps theories of gift economies can help us come to understand software libre as attempting to create a separate software economy?

  • Free as in Beer v. Free as in Speech
  • Copyright v. Copyleft
  • Copyleft v. Free Culture - is there a difference?
  • The Economic Drive v. The Cultural Drive
  • Profit v. Reputations
  • Insiders v. Outsiders - are there deep disconnects between the business, software, and legal worlds that make common ground hard to find?

Questions

We propose to explore the division between "free as in speech" and "free as in beer" and then use what ideas we can develop to explore the following questions:

  1. To what extent does the law of copyrights protect software libre and software gratis?
  2. To what extend is the law of in fundamental opposition to software libre or software gratis?
  3. Why does free software succeed in geek communities and in the market-place generally, and what does the future of free software look like?
  4. Can we imagine a world in which gift economics is the predominant ruler of the software markets? Would the law extend into this world or not?

Guest Wish-list

The Big Think team might be able help secure some of these folks -- hit me up at peter@bigthink.com if you'd like some assistance making contact. PeterH 07:11, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Readings

Potential Readings

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