what even is the origin of the "when you program open source you're programming communism" poster?

@chjara There was a thread on fedi a while ago regarding this iirc, I obviously can't search my favorites because lol Mastodon...

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@lispi314 @chjara

Probably something like this: when you contribute to FOSS you contribute to a common good, with common ownership. Communists want common ownership for everything, so they should appreciate FOSS.

@eliasr @chjara Well, that is the idea yeah, but I meant that there was a thread about the provenance of the actual poster image itself.

@lispi314 @chjara

It is interesting that FOSS appeals to both leftwing people (including "communists") and rightwing/libertarian folks. The latter crowd don't care much about common ownership, but they very much appreciate the individual freedom FOSS brings in that you can check and modify the code yourself, you can be independent from BigTech and government surveillance and so on. Independence is important to them.

Personally, in my great wisdom, I appreciate both aspects. 🙂

@lispi314 @eliasr @chjara I'm having trouble finding authoritative sources or artist information, but it was created around 2006-2007 as a response to Bill Gates accusing Free Software developers of being Communist. Here's mainstream coverage from that period: slate.com/technology/2005/11/t

I, too, would like to know who made it; I want to credit them. I have a few guesses, but I won't speculate without evidence.

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