[libreplanet-discuss] Mapping the patterns of the GNU GPL Onto the Material World

[Patrick Anderson]

Hi all,

Here is an idea I have been working on to help us host Free Software,
build Free Hardware, and also to generally gain more User Freedom in
the physical world.

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The GNU GPL uses Copyright to enforce Copyleft which requires Users
gain access to the 'Sources' of the 'Objects' they use.

Objects are finished goods, such as a computer program, but might also
be something as ordinary as a loaf of bread.

Sources are the "preferred form of the work for making modifications
to [future instances] of it".  This includes (but is not limited to)
human-readable "source code" and supporting scripts for making a
program, but might also mean the recipe and designs of supporting
tools required to make bread.

We can think of Sources as the Immaterial Means of Production for any
Object.  They are required to make those Objects, and to modify future
instances of those Objects, but they are not enough to fully guarantee
User Freedom.  We also need the Material Means of Production to write
and store and express programs or to make and store bread.

So, while the GNU GPL can be applied to the Immaterial parts of most
anything, we need another legal instrument to insure Users can access
the Material Means of Production.

This may seems like an impossible goal since Material Sources have
real costs that cannot be ignored.

...

I thought about this problem for a very long time.  In the meantime I
kept hearing about large corporations controlling more and more of the
production we need, and collecting more and more Profit along the way.

It seemed obvious we could use part of that Profit collected from the
Users to buy and build the Material Means of Production that those
Users need to insure their freedom, but how could we ever get these
corporations to do such a thing?

Then I remembered the GNU GPL is a voluntary agreement that is applied
by those who *choose* to constrain their *own* holdings.

So we, as groups who want to insure User Freedom in the Material
realm, can buy real Property such as land and tools and plants and
animals, etc. and then *choose* to apply a legally-binding agreement
over that physical property, that treats part of Profit as an
investment from the User who paid - causing ownership in the growth of
that organization to be automatically and continuously distributed to
those who pay for that growth.

Since these new Owners will also be Users of the very Objects of that
production, they can accept those Objects as the "Return on
Investment".  This creates a very strange dynamic where Profit is
driven toward zero.

When Users own the Material Means of Production and accept the Object
itself (such as a loaf of bread) as ROI, there is no need to sell the
Object at all since it is already the property of those who will use
it, so the Price each user pays as a consumer is exactly the Costs
they each paid as a co-owner, and Profit does not exist at all because
the final transaction (selling the Object) does not occur.

So by treating (at least part of) Profit as the payer's investment,
Users incrementally gain property ownership in the Material Means of
Production, eventually giving them the control they have always
sought, and achieving those results at no more than the real Costs of
Production.

If these Users have surplus Objects, they can sell them to Users who
do not yet have enough Property, and even charge Profit against them,
but must (according to the agreement we still need to write) treat
some of that Profit as the payer's investment so that all Users gain
freedom in the Material Realm by gaining access to the Material Means
of Production.
----

Sincerely,
Patrick Anderson