Freedom of Creation Workshop - Part II

The Video-Library

The morning after the night before, the workshop continued on with its explanation of the use(fullness) of free software and the open source/linux movement. Jaromil especially emphasised the importance of privacy on the web, as he showed in a few seconds how full (real-life) adresses can be obtained from (virtual) IP-adresses. Additionally, the many hubs that lie on a user's path to the internet are vulnerable spots that can be compromised, and may result in your communication being obtained or obstructed. To stress the importance of keeping your data safe, Jaromil mentioned a few cases in which insecure data of influential people had been sold to third parties to be used, without their consent. The participants, including myself, were then shown the ways to ensure optimal privacy, against these type of actions, in the Dyne:bolic Operating Server, primarily by 'nesting'.

The rest of the workshop soon spun into a political Q&A on the economy in which open source operates. Participants were slightly confused when they were told they were welcome to sell their free Dyne:Bolic CDs to friends and families, without having to give the creators a share of the profits. Nevertheless, Jaromil ensured us that while copy-right as such isn't relevant in the open source movement, as everyone is free to create, use and distribute sofware, creators still get credited for their adaptions.

Motivated by the liberatory and ideological motivations underlying free software-creation, the group collectively expressed its desire to put the workshop into practice somehow during the national strike that will take place this Sunday. To be continued..