On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 21:21:08 -0700, Aaron Wolf wrote: > On 10/24/2015 09:05 PM, Mike Gerwitz wrote: > Given two worlds, one where proprietary software has no maliciousness > and one where it has egregious maliciousness, I can't imagine anyone > saying that the importance of software freedom is equal in both cases. > Are you really saying that?
Malicious acts (more malicious than simply being proprietary) help us to justify our cause---because software freedom would thwart many of those acts, or even reverse control entirely. But those malicious acts are a corollary of non-free software. The reasons that software freedom is essential have not changed; they've been exemplified. So it is important that the egregious exploitation and manipulation of users be addressed with greater urgency, certainly. But we wouldn't say that human health and a proper diet would be "less important" in the United States if the obesity epidemic suddenly subsided. Health is vital to survival. Software freedom is vital for society, more so now than ever. If we would adopt the view that it's "less important" at any point, then we risk history repeating itself. -- Mike Gerwitz Free Software Hacker | GNU Maintainer http://mikegerwitz.com FSF Member #5804 | GPG Key ID: 0x8EE30EAB
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