> I find it so incredibly in line wih my free market economic > principles, and my civil liberties stance, that I can't believe I > never thought of it before. From a free market perspective, free > software simply asserts basic principles of the market: software as a > product is created by someone, and can be transferred through exchange > in the market. As soon as the exchange happens, the software is no > longer property of the creator, but of the purchaser. This is personal > property, and respect for it at its finest. Needless to say, not many > are interested in the details of economics, so I'll hold off there.
This doesn't seem to be a common view of economics (with "free market" being associated with support for monopolies and lack of worker rights); I think mutualists and Marxists have similar views. (I have understood the association of free software with gift culture and anarcho-communism before, not noticed the similarity to the labour theory of value so clearly before reading your post.) I have seen the arguments for free software being compatible with businesses writing software before, we need more examples like yours.
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