[pp.int.general] Pirate Party of Germany chooses proprietary software

[Gareth Nelson]

On the subject of free software and pirate politics:
The ideology of both, to me anyway, appears to be that we should be
free to do as we please with our own property and our own hardware.
Free software gives us control of our computers, real control.
Proprietary software locks bits of our computers away from us and
makes it illegal to control our own property.
Copyright in general says that we can not copy a creative work onto
our own storage media without the permission of someone else - giving
other people control of our own property.

Free software is important for what we are doing.

For myself, I tolerate none-free software for only one thing - games.
And even then, I do not tolerate abusive DRM and I do not accept the
right of the developers to a monopoly on distribution. I will happily
pay more for special editions of certain games (anyone who knows me
will know how much I love the assassins creed series, and how much I
hate ubisoft management for perverting such a fine work of art on the
PC/windows version with DRM - at least the console versions are "only"
proprietary) in order to support the talented people that continue to
entertain me in such a thought provoking way.

Even with games, I still sometimes am bothered by the lack of ability
to fix bugs. But as works of art, they generally do not need
modification to make use of - I can be taken in by the story and enjoy
it without modifying it, just like I do not rewrite novels even if
they are public domain. And games are usually just entertainment, but
for anything of importance beyond that free software is important.

For a critical core function of your organisation, you should accept
nothing other than free software. It is perverse that free (as in
freedom) software often comes free (as in money), but if you pay up
for proprietary software you end up with LESS rights. That is
something we should object to.

---
“Lanie, I’m going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for
everyone. That’s worth going to jail for. That’s worth anything.” -
Printcrime by Cory Doctrow

Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html



On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 12:10 PM, Antonio Garcia <ningunotro at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Have to disagree... I can not trust people that are willing not to have
> principles in order to be more competitive. Any next principle they might
> choose to sacrifice could hurt my expectations and my ability to collaborate
> very badly... so I might choose not to put in common tools and abilities
> that might later on be used to attain competitive goals I can not agree
> with.
>
> This is not about free - non-free software, it is about being trustworthy to
> your kin, and a respectable pirate, OR NOT.
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: rok.andree at piratskastranka.net
> Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:31:40 +0200
> To: pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> Subject: Re: [pp.int.general] Pirate Party of Germany chooses proprietary
> software
>
> Gonna have to agree with Boris and Andrew.
>
> Beeing opensource/free(as in freedome) gives software extra points but it
> does not disqualify nonfree software.
> Lp
> Rok Andrée
> Blagajnik - Treasurer
> Piratska stranka Slovenije - Slovenian Pirate Party
>
>
> On 30 July 2011 22:26, Andrew Norton <ktetch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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> On 7/30/2011 4:01 PM, Boris Turovskiy wrote:
>> */this is a trolling post/*
>> Ahoi,
>>
>> The Pirate Party of Germany has decided to use a proprietary, commercial
>> software tool for accounting and member management. After a review of
>> all possibilities that software was the only one which conformed to all
>> requirements.
>> As you can surmise I'm fully supportive of the German Pirate Party
>> Board's approach, as I consider a software to be a tool which has to be
>> chosen based on its suitability.
>
> I'm with you, Boris. Choosing tools based on ideology, rather than
> suitability is like fighting sweatshops by never wearing shoes. It makes
> little difference overall, and hurts your ability to perform optimally.
>
> Pirate Parties are *NOT* FOSS-cheerleading orgs, they're freedom, and
> progress orgs. That might mean promoting FOSS alternatives at times
> (particularly if they're the better option), but when there isn't one,
> but there is a non-FOSS method that works perfectly, then use the non-FOSS.
>
> Personally, if non-FOSS is a fair way ahead of the FOSS equivalent, I'm
> not going to cripple my ability to do things on ideological grounds.
> That's just stupid. Just like the politicians here in the US right now.
>
>
> Andrew
>
>> However, I know that there are some people in the international Pirate
>> movement who see software as a principal issue (invoking terms like
>> "freedom" and other utter bullshit), for whom I wish to create this
>> thread. They can safely troll here in the knowledge that no0 one takes
>> them seriously.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Boris
>>
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________
>> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
>> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
>> http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general
>
>
> - --
> Andrew Norton
> http://ktetch.blogspot.com
> Tel: (352)6-KTETCH [352-658-3824]
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> ____________________________________________________
> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general
>
>
> ____________________________________________________ Pirate Parties
> International - General Talk pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general
> ____________________________________________________
> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general
>
>