I am looking for works about free software or based on this philosophy, there are books like “Free software for a free society” and documentaries like “Linux code”, but I would like to know what other works there are related to free software and this philosophy, there are things like snow crash, which talks about the decentralization of the internet from a fictional and futuristic story, these types of works are also valid.
Probably weirder than you’re looking for, but fun.
Look, I enjoy these comics, but OP is clearly looking for philosophical literature not loosely-coherent lore-driven webcomics…
snow crash, which talks about the decentralization of the internet from a fictional and futuristic story
I don’t remember it prominently featuring a plotline like that. That was the one with\
spoiler
the nam shub or whatever? And hacking people’s brain’s with, basically, NLP?
Well if that counts, then Neuromancer by William Gibson fits in that it’s about\
spoiler
removing DRM (“Turing Locks”) from AI—legit AI too, not the hallucinating parlor tricks of today. ::: 😏
Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html
One of the best quotes about Free Software, was how it is essentially using the same principles as Judo, use the opponents momentum against them.
The way Free Software uses full, restrictive copyright to create a permissive, free sharing-based copyright is an excellent example of the technique within many Judo throws.
I can’t remember where this quote was from, and a quick search found nothing. Maybe someone else can pinpoint it.
Off the topic of my head, maybe these can get you started:
Hackers, by Stephen Levy
The Hacker Ethic, by Pekka Himanen
True Names, by Vernor Vinge
Free Culture, by Lawrence Lessig
A Fire Upon The Deep (SF novel), by Vernor Vinge
How about this?
The Cathedral and the Bazaar : Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary by Eric Raymond,
It’s from 1997 but addresses some of what you mentioned. Things have changed a lot since it was written though, so just keep that in mind.
Raymond is a fucking fascist.
CW racism
He’d call himself a libertarian, but he’s the kind of libertarian that wants to bomb muslims for hating our freedoms and thinks black people are just naturally more criminal because they have the crime gene or something, and no I’m not making this up.
Plus he’s one of the “open source” rebrand types, so as not to scare the
hoescorporations with too much scary “free software” hippie communism.On a similar note:
If “Snow Crash” counts, you probably want to look into the novels “Daemon” and especially its sequel “Freedom” by Daniel Suarez. Probably also the novel “Walkaway” by Corey Doctorow.
“The Internet’s Own Boy” is a documentary about Aaron Swartz that I suspect would also scratch your itch. (Available on Archive.org)
Edit: Almost forgot The Public Domain by James Boyle. I haven’t read that one yet, but it’s high on my list.
Also Doctorow’s novella “Unauthorized Bread”.
Don’t forget the GPL itself.
