Would you pay for water? Of course you would. You pay for bottled "pure" water and you pay for the water that comes out of the kitchen sink. Would you pay for air? You are, since you help sustain a government that passes laws that impede others from befouling the air that you and I breathe. I mean, I hope our governments do at least that!
Water and air are common goods. They are plentiful (debatable, I know) and everyone should have a right to them; and responsibility too, do not forget that. We should be able, in case we don't want to pay the utilities for water, to drive to the nearest stream and get a week's worth of water for our consumption. Yes, I know! It sounds utterly ridiculous; who would want to do that?!
Are you paying for water? Or for the service and infrastructure that makes it possible for water to be on tap?... Think about it.
Bottled water is a physical product. Someone has to handle it, put it in a bottle that another someone has made, certify it is (hopefully) pure, cart it on a truck to someplace neat where it is available for you to buy. In the end you can feel the water's weight in your hand before you drink it. But being a physical product, water can be affected by scarcity; meaning it becomes more difficult to obtain. Since the amount of people born tends to be higher than the amount of people that die and the amount of potable water available decreases; the price for water, even if it is a common good, increases.
Software, on the other (virtual) hand, is an entirely immaterial product. Once it has been written, analyzed, coded and finalized... It can be copied and copied and copied... There can be no scarcity when speaking about software. It is a pure public good (notice the lack of quotes in pure this time!). Or, at least, it should be.
So why do you ( yes, you!) have to pay more for software instead of less? It happens whether you only buy a personal computer (WARNING: The copy of Windows XP included in your computer is NOT free!), or when you buy server software to run a website. The answer is: Because software corporations, primarily Microsoft, control the market in such a way as to make it seem like software is more valuable that it really is, to make it seem like software is limited. To make you think you have to pay for something when it isn't necessarily true.
But there is another way, yes you can get software for free. Free as in freedom. Which is what this soldier is all about.
A free operating system!
A free office suit!
A free web browser!
A free web server!
The information soldier wonders if it makes any difference whether he stands and shouts in this digital soapbox or not...
