[Discuss] OSHW & Economics

[Michael Shiloh]

On 11/24/2013 01:07 PM, Matt Maier wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Javier Serrano <Javier.Serrano at cern.ch>wrote:
>
>> On 20.11.2013 21:48, Matt Maier wrote:
>>> If someone is "free" to
>>> do something, but can't afford to, they don't consider the freedom
>> relevant.
>>
>> Let's agree to disagree on that. I do consider the freedom relevant, and
>> I am not the only one.
>
>
> I finally found this thing where Richard Stallman talked about "free
> hardware" specifically. As you can see, his impression of "free as in
> speech" hardware is that the freedom isn't relevant since it's so hard to
> exercise the freedom.
>
> http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/1999062200505NWLF
>
> "*Because copying hardware is so hard, the question of whether we're
> allowed to do it is not vitally important. I see no social imperative for
> free hardware designs like the imperative for free software.*"

But he wrote that in 1999. The reason that OSHW is an issue now is that 
the cost and difficulty of copying hardware has plummeted, and will 
continue to do so.

I wonder if Richard Stallman feels his statement above needs to be revised.