Wendy: "I recently [wrote] an article on the failures of the free software movement for Logic Magazine, in a piece called Freedom Isn’t Free [2]. I agree that f

Wendy: "I recently [wrote] an article on the failures of the free software movement for Logic Magazine, in a piece called Freedom Isn’t Free [2]. I agree that free software is useful as a political rallying point. As it is now, though, it doesn’t present a challenge to capital. If we want to reclaim the radical roots of the free software movement, there needs to be a larger political project mobilising around what free software originally meant and extending that to challenge the dominance of the tech giants. It’s not easy, but there is value in the ideas behind free software. I first came across the movement when I was really young and I loved it - like, “yeah, intellectual property sucks!” The challenge is getting people who feel that way to to understand why intellectual property exists in the first place - how capitalism works, and why it needs intellectual property. From there, you have a bridge to a more radical politics." Jason: "I see free software as one of the reasons we should unionise. I recently gave a talk at a Ruby conference on the Lucas Plan, which was well-received - everyone liked the idea of producing socially useful things. But then I shot myself in the foot by saying that the MIT license needs to die, which didn’t go over well. If you use a license like that to release software, you have no control over how your software is used. You can have all the moral codes you want, but then it’s being used 10 companies down the line by someone you don’t like. I don’t think the solution is draconian control over software, as free software ideology is embedded in the industry. The solution is organising." [1] [1] https://newsocialist.org.uk/tech-workers-inquiry-at-twt/ https://newsocialist.org.uk/tech-workers-inquiry-at-twt/ [2] https://logicmag.io/failure/freedom-isnt-free/ https://logicmag.io/failure/freedom-isnt-free/