Gift and the New Software

* - Article: Gift and free software. Martin Studer. Commoner (.org), No. 9, Spring-Summer 2004

URL = https://thecommoner.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Matthias-Studer-Gift-and-Free-Software.pdf

Summary

From the reading notes of Michel Bauwens, 2006:

- An interpretation of free software in terms of the Maussian theory of the gift.

"What is a gift ? From a juridical standpoint, gift differs from exchange by the fact that the giver refuses his right to demand an equivalent exchange."

"Gifts are made in the name of a relationship, of the tie ... The gift must make sense in the relation,"

The recipient must be able to refuse the gift, but the liberty to return another gift is crucial, because it involves subjectivity and recognition of the recipient.

Free software involves a recognition of the individual by the community, and a recognition of community by the participant. In a broader sense one gives to the broader community of free software projects, to a culture.