Using #FreeSoftware everyday from OSes (for desktop and mobile) to a music player, I've realized the value of freedom of software and the reason why free software is not the matter of price (gratis).
Basically this is the matter of rights, responsibility, and ethics of the civil society. See "Mutual recognition of freedom" by Hegel.
It is unfortunate that free software has been mainly the topic of computer geeks and established thinkers around the world have not thought about that quite much.
> "Mutual recognition of freedom" by Hegel
I had to look that up, found this: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel-social-political/
"Hegel defines “right” [Recht] as the existence of the free will in the world. So a philosophy of right is necessarily a philosophy of freedom that seeks to comprehend freedom actualized in how we relate to each other and construct social and political institutions."
One might add: "how we relate to each other and construct social and political institutions... and software." 🙂
@eliasr Right. Since the world today depends on software including communication (both public and private), which actually is the society itself, the freedom of software should be regarded as the basis of the civil society.
When it comes to the interpretation of Hegel from the perspective of civil society Japan has not negligible tradition, in which I've educated myself.