FOSS, Science, and Public activism

(Sorry if you get more than one copy of this message, but I felt
that it was urgent to get this important info out.)

The values of freedom and openness are crucial to understanding 
itself, so that civilization and public welfare now depend on 
them, as I argue below.  These values may find their best 
expression in the free and open source software (FOSS) movement, 
and the foresightful example of FOSS developers should now be
beneficially applied to many other disciplines in the context of a
global and public Internet.

It is crucial that we occasionally take time to discuss the
reasons _why_ we release our source code, and this is one of 
those occasions.  There are good reasons for the freedom and
openness which are characteristics of FOSS development, reasons
which should receive wider attention now that they can be readily
communicated to other arenas.  The consequences of doing otherwise
are often catastrophic.

For example, it incomprehensible that Genentech could consider
withdrawing a cheap cure for blindness (ARMD) from the market.

http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/random-bits/2006-june/001374.html

The mechanism of this drug is public knowledge.

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=14183567&forum_id=6042

This abhorrent situation is a great example of the kind of thing