The open source movement

The open source movement is an idea that software can be freely distributed for anyone to use. Open source software often produces better alternatives and sometimes better security and privacy as opposed to software which you buy from corporations. Open source software means that the software must include the source code and allow for this to be freely manipulated and changed by anyone in society which is a great idea because the general public can see what the specific program or web page is doing as opposed to a non open source software.

Linux and Mozilla Firefox are most probably the most recognized open source products on the market today. They like many others believe that everyone should have access to software because in a way open source was one of the key founding stones for the internet.  

 "Without the internet and the web, no open source – without open source, no internet or web”

Mitch Kapor, Interview in The Guardian, Oct 2009

If the majority of things in life were open source then there would be no barriers with entrepreneurs and inventors creating ideas and products more efficiently and cost effectively. If you want to build a rocket that can go to mars and use your own codes for the software but need to use two lines of code from N.A.S.A you would not be able to unless you pay for them which would be tremendous. A lot of ideas and creations do not come to life because of this money constraint or the threat of legal action. Products such as medicines have been held back because of copyright.  Do you think this barrier is a good thing for life on earth?

 “Copyright is a system to advance public interests”

William Patry, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, 2009

I think that this is partly true because people should get recognition for their work and should get rewarded for this but a lot of the time multiple copyrights are snapped up by conglomerates so that their sole corporation has the rights to make these products resulting in mass profits. This stifles the competition making them the leader in the particular area of work they are working in. As well as this companies will also buy other companies just so they can acquire their patents so that they can use them with their own products.  At the moment patent wars are happening all the time with companies such as Apple sueing Motorola and Motorola sueing Apple over using their work in the products they sell. Unfortunately this is the environment in which capitalism creates. 

This is why at the moment there is a power struggle in the technology industry between the likes of Hollywood and Silicon valley. Hollywood among others, wants the governments of the world to crack down on illegal file sharing and open source because they say this harms authors and entrepreneurs as well as hurting their profits. On the other hand, some of Silicon Valley say that cracking down will hurt the industry more then help it.

It would seem that the Hollywood and associates lobbyist groups have been successful in getting governments around the world to sign the new ACTA law which will come in to affect in the UK this summer . Your ISP will be checking all data packages entering and leaving your computer for material that they deem counterfeit or infringing. Human rights groups say that this is a dangerous road to travel down. If you download a film you could be sharing a jail cell with a murderer. Good luck.

Some would say that it is things like this which prevent humanity from moving forward at an efficient pace as we are holding ourselves backing in certain areas of our system.