David Kastrup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Yes, this is a political question and a moral one.
It is, but people approach the ethical questions of labour and software from different starting points. Most people have thought about and discussed the ethical aspects of child labour, and try to some degree to avoid it. Probably because paid labour is over a thousand years old and the free labour movement's ideas about workers deserving certain rights is already a few hundred years old. Society has a philosophy about labour. On the other hand, most people don't think about the ethical aspects of software. Software is new, and the idea that software users deserve certain rights is barely 25 years old and is still relatively unknown to society-at-large. If someone thinks that software developers should have no obligations (i.e. there are no rights that users of the software deserve), then it's most likely that they haven't heard the arguments. When they hear the arguments, the still might not agree, but I think it's best to present the arguments rather than replying with what sounds like an accusation of ignoring ethics. -- Ciarán O'Riordan, +32 477 36 44 19, http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ Support free software, join FSFE's Fellowship: http://fsfe.org Recent blog entries: http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/using_latex_to_make_pdf_documents_with_japanese_characters http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/links_sean_daly_kde_swpat_chessboxing http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/links_india_pats_clipperz_freegis_rms_emacs http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/using_and_writing_emacs_22_input_methods _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
