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diff --git a/.html/dev/gnu-collective-action-license.html b/.html/dev/gnu-collective-action-license.html deleted file mode 100644 index f2adbea..0000000 --- a/.html/dev/gnu-collective-action-license.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,133 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html> -<html> -<head> - <title> - The Codex » - The GPL As Collective Action - </title> - - <link - rel='stylesheet' - type='text/css' - href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Buenard:400,700&subset=latin,latin-ext'> - <link - rel="stylesheet" - type="text/css" - href="../media/css/reset.css"> - <link - rel="stylesheet" - type="text/css" - href="../media/css/grimoire.css"> -</head> -<body> - -<div id="shell"> - - <ol id="breadcrumbs"> - - <li class="crumb-0 not-last"> - - <a href="../">index</a> - - </li> - - <li class="crumb-1 not-last"> - - <a href="./">dev</a> - - </li> - - <li class="crumb-2 last"> - - gnu-collective-action-license - - </li> - - </ol> - - - - <div id="article"> - <h1 id="the-gpl-as-collective-action">The GPL As Collective Action</h1> -<p>Programmers, like many groups of subject experts, are widely afflicted by the -belief that all other fields of expertise can be reduced to a special case of -programming expertise. For a great example of this, watch <a href="https://xkcd.com/1494/">programmers argue -about law</a> (which can <em>obviously</em> be reduced to a rules -system, which is a programming problem), -<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2e5a7k/could_the_blockchain_be_used_to_prove_consensual/">consent</a> -(which is <em>obviously</em> about non-repudiatable proofs, which are a programming -problem), or <a href="https://github.com/google/deepdream">art</a> (which is <em>obviously</em> -reducible to simple but large automata). One key symptom of this social pattern -is a disregard for outside expertise and outside bodies of knowledge.</p> -<p>I believe this habit may have bitten Stallman.</p> -<p>The GNU Public License presents a simple, legally enforceable offer: in return -for granting the right to distribute the licensed work and its derivatives, the -GPL demands that derivative works also be released under the GPL. The <em>intent</em>, -as derived from -<a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html">Stallman’s commentaries</a> -on the GPL and on the social systems around software, is that people who <em>use</em> -information systems should, morally and legally, be entitled to the tools to -understand what the system will do and why, and to make changes to those tools -as they see fit.</p> -<p>This is a form of <em>collective action</em>, as implemented by someone who thinks of -unions and organized labour as something that software could do better. The -usual lens for critique of the GPL is that GPL’d software cannot be used in -non-GPL systems (which is increasingly true, as the Free Software Foundation -catches up with the “as a Service” model of software deliver) <em>by developers</em>, -but I think there’s a more interesting angle on it as an attempt to apply the -collective bargaining power of programmers as a class to extracting a -concession from managerial -- business and government -- interests, instead. In -that reading, the GPL demands that managerial interests in software avoid -behaviours that would be bad for programmers (framed as “users”, as above) as a -condition of benefitting from the labour of those programmers.</p> -<p>Sadly, Stallman is not a labour historian or a union organizer. He’s a public -speaker and a programmer. By attempting to reinvent collective action from -first principles, and by treating collective action as a special case of -software development, the GPL acts to divide programmers from non-programming -computer users, and to weaken the collective position of programmers vis-à-vis -managerial interests. The rise of “merit”-based open source licenses, such as -the MIT license (which I use heavily, but advisedly), and the increasing -pervasiveness of the Github Resume, are both simple consequences of this -mistake.</p> -<p>I’m pro-organized-labour, and largely pro-union. The only thing worse than -having two competing powerful interests in the room is having only one powerful -interest in the room. The GPL should be part of any historical case study for -the unionization of programmers, since it captures so much of what we do wrong.</p> - </div> - - - -<div id="comments"> -<div id="disqus_thread"></div> -<script type="text/javascript"> - /* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * */ - var disqus_shortname = 'grimoire'; // required: replace example with your forum shortname - - /* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * */ - (function() { - var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true; - dsq.src = 'http://' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/embed.js'; - (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq); - })(); -</script> -<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href="http://disqus.com/?ref_noscript">comments powered by Disqus.</a></noscript> -<a href="http://disqus.com" class="dsq-brlink">comments powered by <span class="logo-disqus">Disqus</span></a> -</div> - - - - <div id="footer"> - <p> - - The Codex — - - Powered by <a href="http://markdoc.org/">Markdoc</a>. - -<a href="https://bitbucket.org/ojacobson/grimoire.ca/src/master/wiki/dev/gnu-collective-action-license.md">See this page on Bitbucket</a> (<a href="https://bitbucket.org/ojacobson/grimoire.ca/history-node/master/wiki/dev/gnu-collective-action-license.md">history</a>). - - </p> - </div> - -</div> -</body> -</html>
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