[AktiviX] The Free software mode of production

[Nick Hill]

Chris Croome wrote:

> Hi
> 
> At a session in Lancaster I mentioned that I think that
> the manner in which free software is produced represents a
> new mode of production. 
> 
> This is an extract from a message to another list I sent
> last night:
> 
>   The production method of free software appears to me to
>   be a new mode of production, one that while it is being
>   used by individual capitalists in competition with other
>   capitalists is ultimately something with the potential
>   to replace the capitalist mode of production.

If we as individuals in society can hold back the protectionist measures 
which create a leverage of money over free software production, then 
yes, the mode can continue and grow.

The mode is threatened by systems such as patents. As I coined last year:

"Patents put ideas under the control of money"
Which can be paraphrased
"Patents put ideas under the control of capital concentration"
By corollary
"Patents put developments under control of the natural interests of the 
oligarchy"

Patents can be a threat to new modes of production. The threat posed to 
society by the Arlene McCarthy's proposed directive on 'Computer 
Implemented Inventions' has opened my senses to so many areas patents in 
software can subdue creativeness and disempower the weaker or poorer.