InfoWorld: Where the heart lies

“It was not long before the news media began to remind
us that selflessness and courage were among the highest ideals of
our nation. It may not make headlines on most normal days, but the
willingness to do the right thing when a need arises — even at
great cost to oneself — has always been one of the greatest
American virtues.

How is it, then, that open-source software is un-American?
Someone who works hard at creating a useful piece of code and then
selflessly elects to make it freely available to all is hardly
engaged in an un-American act. Even if that person happens not to
be an American, he or she is engaged in a practice that America has
long respected.

Although it is true that writing open-source software is not on
the same level as running into a collapsing building to save lives,
it is true that electing to write open-source code is by no means a
subversive activity. It is, in fact, a little slice of selflessness
— something that America applauds.”

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