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At the end of day, isn’t Free Software the solution? Every issue with power and control of all these big organizations steem from the fact that their software

At the end of day, isn’t Free Software the solution? Every issue with power and control of all these big organizations steem from the fact that their software does not respect the 4 freedoms. The west very much likes “free” trade, but how can you have free trade between so many different regulations and so many power disparities? At least with Free Software, even if you don’t want to trust the entity you are dealing with, at least you can inspect, learn and adapt its software, so that people don’t have a big service disruption. Stallman was right.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> isn’t Free Software the solution In a vacuum. In practice, these platforms take massive resources to run and improve, and consumers won’t deal with the inconvenience of distributed systems.
- tm-guimaraes 4y ago
  The point is Free Software, not distributed systems. It can still be a centrilized service, and be Free Software at the same time.
est 4y ago
> isn’t Free Software the solution Free software doesn't lay cables under the Pacific ocean.
FredPret 4y ago
Platforms != software Platforms require wide, simultaneous participation by content producers and consumers, which requires popularity, which requires persistent marketing efforts, which requires a mountain of capital. Platforms are much more a business with a brand than it is software.
- tm-guimaraes 4y ago
  the issues are trust. not whether you can get users to produce content for it. edit: someone else mentioned distributed systems, again the point is not these became decentralized or federated or anything like it, the point is them being Free, as in you can see how things are done, it gets harder to perverse the trust. And lets say a bad platform from a foreign entity is shown to compromise your national security, there are multiple options besides just showing the issues, presenting solutions/patches to the problem that troubles your nation, and last case scenario, migration path to the citizens using that service to a in.country managed one. The last one was being tried, having Microsoft/Oracle managing TikTok in the states, would a situation like that become easier with time, had all these platforms been Free Software?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - FredPret 4y ago
    First is popularity, second is trust. You can have a 100% trustworthy ghost town, and nobody cares. Or you can have a billion people on a communist spying platform, and everybody wants to join because the platform is alive.
commoner 4y ago
Free software is important, but it's not a solution to authoritarian laws that restrict people from using any software (free or proprietary) under arbitrary criteria, enforced with heavy penalties. The only solution to bad legislation is political participation. If you're in the US, call your senators and representative and demand for them to vote against the RESTRICT Act. It takes just a minute or two to contact each congressperson, and it's one of the most practical ways for a person to effect political change. If you don't like to make phone calls, sending each of them an email would still have a higher impact than doing nothing. Contact information for members of the U.S. Congress: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
scotty79 4y ago
Even if it's free software, if it has more than one million users and unelected official decides it can be somehow associated with US enemies you can go to jail for 20 years for insisting on using it, if this bill becomes a law.
- eru 4y ago
  Not that it would be any better, if these officials were elected.
- kallistisoft 4y ago
  The bill specifically mentions open-source software, and given how broadly an 'entity' is defined, and open source project/library that has contributions from a citizen of a 'adversarial country' and has more than 1MM users could be affected by this bill if directed by the Sec.State or Executive Section 5(a)(3)(c) (a) Priority Information And Communications Technology Areas.—In carrying out sections 3 and 4, the Secretary shall prioritize evaluation of— ... (3) any software, hardware, or any other product or service integral to data hosting or computing service that uses, processes, or retains, or is expected to use, process, or retain, sensitive personal data with respect to greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including— ... (C) machine learning, predictive analytics, and data science products and services, *including those involving the provision of services to assist a party utilize, manage, or maintain open-source software;*

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> isn’t Free Software the solution In a vacuum. In practice, these platforms take massive resources to run and improve, and consumers won’t deal with the inconvenience of distributed systems.

tm-guimaraes 4y ago
The point is Free Software, not distributed systems. It can still be a centrilized service, and be Free Software at the same time.

est 4y ago

> isn’t Free Software the solution Free software doesn't lay cables under the Pacific ocean.

FredPret 4y ago

Platforms != software Platforms require wide, simultaneous participation by content producers and consumers, which requires popularity, which requires persistent marketing efforts, which requires a mountain of capital. Platforms are much more a business with a brand than it is software.

tm-guimaraes 4y ago
the issues are trust. not whether you can get users to produce content for it. edit: someone else mentioned distributed systems, again the point is not these became decentralized or federated or anything like it, the point is them being Free, as in you can see how things are done, it gets harder to perverse the trust. And lets say a bad platform from a foreign entity is shown to compromise your national security, there are multiple options besides just showing the issues, presenting solutions/patches to the problem that troubles your nation, and last case scenario, migration path to the citizens using that service to a in.country managed one. The last one was being tried, having Microsoft/Oracle managing TikTok in the states, would a situation like that become easier with time, had all these platforms been Free Software?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- FredPret 4y ago
  First is popularity, second is trust. You can have a 100% trustworthy ghost town, and nobody cares. Or you can have a billion people on a communist spying platform, and everybody wants to join because the platform is alive.

commoner 4y ago

Free software is important, but it's not a solution to authoritarian laws that restrict people from using any software (free or proprietary) under arbitrary criteria, enforced with heavy penalties. The only solution to bad legislation is political participation. If you're in the US, call your senators and representative and demand for them to vote against the RESTRICT Act. It takes just a minute or two to contact each congressperson, and it's one of the most practical ways for a person to effect political change. If you don't like to make phone calls, sending each of them an email would still have a higher impact than doing nothing. Contact information for members of the U.S. Congress: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

scotty79 4y ago

Even if it's free software, if it has more than one million users and unelected official decides it can be somehow associated with US enemies you can go to jail for 20 years for insisting on using it, if this bill becomes a law.

eru 4y ago
Not that it would be any better, if these officials were elected.
kallistisoft 4y ago
The bill specifically mentions open-source software, and given how broadly an 'entity' is defined, and open source project/library that has contributions from a citizen of a 'adversarial country' and has more than 1MM users could be affected by this bill if directed by the Sec.State or Executive Section 5(a)(3)(c) (a) Priority Information And Communications Technology Areas.—In carrying out sections 3 and 4, the Secretary shall prioritize evaluation of— ... (3) any software, hardware, or any other product or service integral to data hosting or computing service that uses, processes, or retains, or is expected to use, process, or retain, sensitive personal data with respect to greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including— ... (C) machine learning, predictive analytics, and data science products and services, *including those involving the provision of services to assist a party utilize, manage, or maintain open-source software;*