license-proliferation committee and corporate america

[Seth Alan Woolley]

On Sun, Aug 21, 2005 at 01:08:26PM -0400, James McGovern wrote:
> Tell us whom we need to contact and we will be all over this. 
> Hopefully this committe has some participation from corporate America? 
> If not, I would also like to volunteer my services...

I know I don't chime in all the time, but I've been subscribed quite a 
while now, but I'd like to respectfully disagree regarding a perceived 
need to include the whims and fancies of Corporate America.

Corporations are fictional entites that have evolved, through the 
American legal and political systems, to actualize the removal of 
personal responsibility from our economic system.  Not all corporations 
are bad, but they exist in an area of lawlessness ("Corporate America") 
supposed public-benefit institutions can no longer afford to speak for.

Now, I know James is probably a bit too late for his request, however, 
for consistency, I have a compromise proposal if his or any other 
corporate application were to be considered:

If an employee or otherwise paid servant of a corporation (either 
directly or indirectly through a think-tank) wishes to join this or any 
other committee, I respectfully request we require that they are free 
from direct monetary influence (such as paid for their time on the 
committee by a corporation) and operate in a volunteer capacity so we 
know that the fiduciary responsibility to the corporation(s) is(are) no 
longer a legal requirement and that they can at least _possibly_ act 
(though no guarantee exists) with the public benefit instead of the 
corporate interest in mind.

At that point, we'd only have to contend with their indirect 
religio-ideological influences gained indirectly through lavish 
corporate compensation (as all hit-men are paid well), unexplainable 
beliefs regarding the power of exploiting comparative advantage to lift 
all boats, and/or other corruptions inherited by way of money and favors 
in the current neofascist economic and political climate.

I always considered the left-right division in the free software 
movement to be mostly quirky, with participation crossing political 
beliefs and people otherwise getting along productively, however, if 
somebody approached the Free Software Foundation and asked explicitly 
for the representation of the Venezuelan Chavez and Brazilian Silva 
Administrations[1], I'd say the same thing: their representatives can 
participate, even in an official capacity, but not via explicit 
government compensation.

Respectfully,

Seth Woolley

[1] Both countries are being led by democratically-elected, left-wing 
reform and/or radical governments that the Bush Administration has 
funded opposition against to the point of funding a CIA-supported, 
failed coup in Venezuela.  Moreover, both are reportedly shifting their 
governmental systems exclusively to free software systems and could have 
a substantial reason to request said representation.

-- 
Seth Alan Woolley [seth at positivism.org], SPAM/UCE is unauthorized
Quality Assurance Team Leader & Security Team: Source Mage GNU/linux
Linux so advanced, it may as well be magic http://www.sourcemage.org
Secretary Pacific Green Party of Oregon http://www.pacificgreens.org
Key id FDCEE733 = 5302 B414 64C4 6112 3454  E082 99F0 69DC FDCE E733
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/attachments/20050822/c3af406b/attachment.sig>