<nettime> Copyleft for companies (was Re: Interview with Richard Stallman...)

[Norbert Bollow <nb@bollow.ch>]

On Wed, 31 Oct 2018 05:31:06 +0530
Frederick Noronha <fredericknoronha@gmail.com> wrote:

> Just because some big, bad, greedy corporation is going to take over
> all such movements, it does not mean that one should give up on one's
> dreams.
> 
> Likewise, after a number of anti-colonial struggles, the regimes which
> replaced them were rife with corruption, misrule and the very
> antithesis of striving towards a better world. But that does not mean
> we should have opted for the colonial situation, right? FN

Not giving up on our dreams means to get serious about working on
solutions to the "some big, bad, greedy corporation is going to take
over all such movements" problem.

What I'm thinking about is the idea of a kind of equivalent to copyleft
for companies. A kind of legally binding ethics pledge that free
software and social justice minded companies would commit themselves
to, and which would have an /acquisition robustness property/ that
would make it legally impossible for the company to be acquired by
another company unless the acquiring company is also bound by the
ethics pledge.

Greetings,
Norbert



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