Tom Gleason

Authored Comments

Buddhism is full of examples of gurus withholding knowledge. The justification, however, is that they are going to impart "wisdom" as opposed to knowledge, and that this wisdom can naturally only be gained through sacrifice of the ego (which of course often translates to the students' time/money) to others.

Then again, open source software is a bit like these 'secret' teachings of eastern religion -- in principle available to anyone with the desire and motivation to learn, but not without a great investment of energy and openness. Linux is freely available, but beyond the grasp of those without the dedication to understand it or participate in the open model.

Generosity creates wealth. Actively intending to limit the distribution of open source software to certain countries will increase poverty in the US and around the world.

"The best anti-poverty program around is a world class education".

And we would intend to deny certain countries the world-class education that open source provides? We are going to invest in restrictions? It is counter-productive to spend time building restrictions to knowledge that is self-secret, and should be left available to anyone smart enough to participate.

No right to require, I agree. If society requires sacrifice, then the individual who shares unwillingly is forced to have greedy thoughts and does not gain the good karma or the benefits of generosity.

I am saying that society has no right to restrict generosity, such as Americans' ability to serve FOSS software to anyone who desires it.