:Eric Raymond: Freedom, Power, or Confusion? [ESR on debate between O'Reilly and FSF]
Eric Raymond: Freedom, Power, or Confusion? [ESR on debate between O'Reilly and FSF] Aug 17, 2001, 17 :38 UTC (183 Talkback[s]) (60677 reads) (Other stories by Eric S. Raymond)
In a reply [1] to Tim O'Reilly [2], Bradley Kuhn and Richard Stallman
illustrate once again why the FSF's use of the word `freedom'
is...well, I'll say "confusing", though stronger terms suggest themselves.
They begin by writing "Power is being able to make decisions that
affect others more than you. If we confuse power with freedom, we will
fail to uphold real freedom." Thus far I agree with them.
Tim asserts that the most fundamental software freedom is the freedom
to choose any license you want for the software you write. Kuhn and
Stallman reply "Unstated, but clearly implied, is that one person or
corporation chooses the rules to impose on everyone else."
There is a curious logical reversal here. In the world of Tim's
Freedom Zero, nobody gets to choose the rules under which developers
will release software -- they make their own choices. Yet Kuhn and
Stallman say they don't like this world. It appears that they would
prefer a world in which people who write software cannot choose
the proprietary licenses that Kuhn and Stallman dislike.
In other words, Stallman and Kuhn want to be able to make decisions
that affect other developers more than themselves. By the definition they
themselves have proposed, they want power.
Perplexing, isn't it? Tim and the FSFers both claim to stand for
`freedom'. Both assert that each others' definition of "freedom" is
actually a covert form of control, a claim of power over others.
The only difference is in who the victims of "Powerplay Zero" are,
users or developers.
Some words (like "freedom") make this kind of semantic ping-pong game
way too easy. They obfuscate more than they enlighten, they cloud the
issues rather than clearing the air. This is a major reason I have
spent the last three years trying to get open-source developers to
stop talking about "freedom". The way we use the word
doesn't merely confuse others, it confuses ourselves.
Witness Tim on one side, and Kuhn & Stallman on the other, bashing
each other with perfect rhetorical symmetry. Is there any way we can
break the deadlock here? Any way to analyze Tim's premise vs. the
FSF's premise without getting caught up in the unhelpful emotive fog
surrounding words like "freedom" and "power"?
I think there is. I'm going to invent a nonsense word now:
"flerbage". And I'm going to define it. I have the condition of
flerbage when I can behave in the confidence that nobody will take my
life, my physical property, or my time without my consent. (Observe
that I am not prejudicing the discussion by assuming that the software I
write is my property.)
I am pro-flerbage. There. I've made my moral commitment. I
like it when people aren't killed to serve the ends of others, or
robbed of their goods to serve the ends of others, or made to
surrender their time (the irreplaceable time of their lives) to the
ends of others. It's good when these things don't happen. It's
evil when they do.
How do the respective prmises of Tim and the FSF meet the flerbage test?
First, say I'm a user. Gill Bates of Sicromoft releases yet another
bloated, buggy operating system under a proprietary license. Kuhn and
Stallman would have it that he is "imposing rules on everybody else".
But is my flerbage affected? Not obviously. I don't have to use
Bates's bloatware. I've got Nulix, a wonderful operating system
developed by people who like to write code that has a friendly
aardvark for a mascot. The odds that anyone is going to come to my
home and kill, me, or rob me, or force me to labor for their ends
rather than my owm, are not increased by Sicromoft's license.
There are certainly things Sicromoft could conceivably do that would
decrease my flerbage. For example, they could get a law passed that
would make it illegal to issue software under open-source licenses.
Then I might face a choice between spending my time coping with
Sicromoft's bugs for Sicromoft's benefit or having police come to my
house to drag me off to jail, or kill me if I resist arrest.
But someone's mere act of issuing software under a proprietary license
doesn't change my flerbage. Tim's premise seems benign enough
to me as a user.
Now let's suppose I'm a software developer. I write open-source
software to have fun and make money. I write proprietary software to
have fun and make money. Part of my flerbage is that I can offer
people a license that says "I trade you my software on the condition
that you (a) pay me some money, and (b) don't give a copy to anyone
else." If they accept, fine. If they don't, also fine; I wander off
to find another customer, and they wander off to find another
developer. Again, Tim's premise seems pretty benign.
Stichard Rallman releases a piece of software under an open-source
license that is superior to one of my proprietary products. Has he
decreased my flerbage? No. The time I spent coding my product has
decreased in tradeable value, but he hasn't forced me to labor for
anyone else's benefit. Nor has he measurably increased the odds that
I will be killed or robbed. Tim's premise is good for both of us.
But now let's suppose that, after years of lobbying, messrs Kuhn and Stallman
get a law passed that makes proprietary licenses illegal. We are now
in the world of the FSF's premise.
As a user, my flerbage doesn't change. I never wanted to issue software
under a proprietary license to begin with, so the new license doesn't
touch me.
But as a developer, things are very different now. If I walk up to someone
and offer them the same proprietary license that I did before the law was
passed, police may come to my house to drag me off to jail, or
kill me if I resist arrest. My flerbage has seriously decreased.
The situation is not symmetrical after all. We have broken the
deadlock, and suddenly the FSF's premise doesn't seem so benign any
more. See how much clearer things are when you avoid using slippery
ping-pong-ball words and focus on actual behavior, and especially on
the question of who gets to use force and when they get to use it?
I'm not going to make any claims about "freedom" here. I'm just
talking about flerbage. But if you the reader agree with me that more
flerbage is a good thing and less flerbage is a bad thing, then there
are some questions we may want to ask Bradley Kuhn and Richard
Stallman.
Here's the first and most important one: if you two could get a
law passed making proprietary licenses illegal, would you do it?
If their answer is "no", then the dispute with Tim is over. Because
that will mean they do recognize a right for developers to
choose licenses as they will without being killed, jailed, or threatened
for choosing the "wrong" one.
If their answer is "yes", then there are many, many other moral
questions we could ask them -- and should, if only so that we can get
some idea if they're too dangerous to have as neighbors.
--
Eric S. Raymond
.. a government and its agents are under no general duty to
provide public services, such as police protection, to any
particular individual citizen...
-- Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App.181)
