Free Software, the Internet, and Global Communities of Resistance
* Book: Free Software, the Internet, and Global Communities of Resistance. By Sara Schoonmaker. Routledge, 2018, 256 pages
Description
1. From the author:
"In the book, I integrate key cases and interviews with free software and net neutrality proponents based in Europe, Brazil and the U.S. I conceptualize software and the Internet as key informational productive forces within informational capitalism. Drawing on your work, I theorize free software as a new form of property based on complex forms of community ownership, rather than private ownership. This catalytic form of property has the potential to act as a catalyst for change in capitalist markets, disrupting the power of proprietary software companies to control software's production and sale. In such instances, it would become what you call transcendent. I explore how free software communities employ a range of strategies to ensure community control over the ongoing creation of the software. Peer producers organize themselves to resist what they view as threats by corporations to undermine the community-based nature of the software. Free software and net neutrality advocates forge global communities of resistance, uniting diverse local participants in global projects. They promote the freedom to share and collaborate, as well as respect for sovereignty and civil liberties like the rights to free speech and privacy."
2. From the publisher:
"This book explores software's pivotal role as the code that powers computers, mobile devices, the Internet, and social media. Creating conditions for the ongoing development and use of software, including the Internet as a communications infrastructure, is one of the most compelling issues of our time. Free software is based upon open source code, developed in peer communities as well as corporate settings, challenging the dominance of proprietary software firms and promoting the digital commons. Drawing upon key cases and interviews with free software proponents based in Europe, Brazil and the U.S., the book explores pathways toward creating the digital commons and examines contemporary political struggles over free software, privacy and civil liberties on the Internet that are vital for the commons' continued development."