Re: [Fsfe-uk] Stalls at Marxism 2003

[Chris Croughton]

On Sat, May 17, 2003 at 12:27:56PM +0100, North London John wrote:

> I think the anti-capitalist / anti-globalization movement is pretty 
> sussed about Free Software - the net is very important to it, and 
> indymedia's content management system has gone gpl 
> (http://mir.indymedia.org/)

Please note that many of us who are supporters of free software are
/not/ anti-capitalist nor against 'globalisation' (at least some
definitions of it, it's a term which tends to be defined differently by
everyone who uses the term).  In fact some of us see Marxism as very
incompatible with the freedoms expressed by the free software movement.

In particular, the free software aims are seen by libertarians as being
anti-authoritarian and anti-statis regardless of whether the state is
left or right (socialist/capitalist), and many of us see a forced
"everything must be 'free'" condition as just as bad as enforced
secrecy, the element of 'force' being in direct opposition to freedom
(and it's freedom which the 'free' in "Free Software" claims to uphold).

Chris C