[Gllug] Handing out flyers this Saturday for the Installfest.

[David Damerell]

On Friday, 14 Feb 2003, Tethys wrote:
>Under that system, free software is definitely libertarian, but not
>particularly leftward or rightward leaning.

Not at all. The "libertarian" position is actually a properatarian
one; ie, that property rights are somehow sacred and the sole function
of government is to protect them.

Mant "libertarians" explicitly extend this to "intellectual property"
(perpetuating the "intellectual property" treated as real property
absurdity) and hence are fans of extended copyright terms, patents
(software patents), and other things that we might dislike.

Even where they do not, the position that property rights are sacred
is not one that lives well with the original vision of a post-scarcity
society (in which property would become basically meaningless); and
many free software types are strongly opposed to the view that
property rights are sacred.

-- 
David Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> Kill the tomato!

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