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AnarchistsAuthorsOwnersTestingThoughts 16 - 25 Oct 2009 - Main.EbenMoglen
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Wow, I created a page! I'm trying to sort out my thoughts on the lecture of October 1, 2009, and I thought that Professor Moglen's comment in the GraspingTheNetTalk page would be a good starting point. | | |
-- BrettJohnson - 24 Oct 2009 | |
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- You're still practicing research-free bloviating. Brett, and it's still inadequate work for that reason and that reason alone. If you look, for example, at the final report of Rishab Ghosh's FLOSS Project to the European Commission, you will find extensive survey research documenting why people say they make free software. In a rigorously-analyzed survey of a large sample of developers, the reasons given most often are (1) to learn and develop new skills; (2) to share knowledge and skills; (3) to participate in a new form of cooperation; (4) because software should not be a proprietary good; and (5) to solve a problem that could not be solved with proprietary software. "To limit the power of large software companies" was in eleventh place, only a little bit above "to get a reputation in the free software/open source community." The only less given reasons include "to make money," and "I don't know." In short, the stuff you made up was completely wrong, That's not the most important point, however. What really matters is that you still don't seem to recognize that you can't go around making shit up. You behave as though "I respectfully disagree" is some sort of magic incantation that frees you from responsibility for the truth of your statements. The question isn't whether you are respectful or disrespectful, but whether you are observing minimum academic standards.
- Software is not an exception of some mysterious kind. Your assertion at this point is no longer merely ignorant; it is, as I have mentioned before, an irresponsible refusal to meet the evidence. Wikipedia and other forms of free reference publication, Open Street Maps and the other forms of free geospatial information, and free journalism have all been discussed at this point. If you are going to challenge either that free forms of functional digital goods production drive out unfree forms, or that they are superior at equilibrium to unfree forms, you can't do it by mere claim: you must meet the available evidence, including but not limited to the facts I have already introduced, and show why the interpretation I advance is wrong. You cannot assert the truth of astrology in an astronomy class, or the truth of creationism in an evolutionary theory seminar. If you do you will fail. In law school, you cannot make up data. You cannot simply ignore inconvenient evidence. You must observe both the systemic requirements of academic honesty and the lawyer's ethical obligations of candor and truthfulness. If you don't, you will fail. I will not say this again.
- The real problem you are having, is not, in my view, that you are ignorant of the rules of academic honesty, much less that you are incapable of being an ethical practitioner. Under ordinary circumstances, you are undoubtedly a responsible student and will surely be an honorable counselor. But you are suffering heavily from the repression of cognitive dissonance. Some stuff you have believed is wrong. Information tending to show that stuff we believe is wrong causes us discomfort, which psychologists call "cognitive dissonance." So we tend unconsciously to repress such information, and the more firmly we believe something, the more we repress adverse evidence, in order to avoid the discomfort involved in reexamining basic premises. Scientists and lawyers are taught to avoid prejudgment, and good ones cultivate a variety of mental and professional disciplines to limit their tendency to repress cognitive awareness that conflicts with previous beliefs. You have not developed the necessary habits, You don't deal with the evidence, not because you're unprincipled enough or foolish enough to think you can get away with it, but because you don't actually admit to yourself that the evidence is there.
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