Hacking Capitalism: The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Movement (Routledge Research in Information Technology and Society)

Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 10 1 A Background of the Hacker Movement 20 2 FOSS Development in a Post-Fordist Perspective 59 3 Commodification of Information 83 4 Consumption and Needs of Information Goods 108 5 Production of Information 123 6 Markets and Gift in the Networked Economy 146 7 Play Struggle of Hackers 165 Summary 196 Notes 202 Bibliography 230 Index 246 This text provides a Marxist analysis of hacking and of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement. It explores the current outdoing of multinational corporations by teams of volunteer developers in producing advanced technlogy. The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement demonstrates how labour can self-organise production, and, as is shown by the free operating system GNU/Linux, even compete with some of the worlds largest firms. The book examines the hopes of such thinkers as Friedrich Schiller, Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse and Antonio Negri, in the light of the recent achievements of the hacker movement. This book is the first to examine a different kind of political activism that consists in the development of technology from below

The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement demonstrates how labour can self-organise production, and, as is shown by the free operating system GNU/Linux, even compete with some of the worlds largest firms. The book examines the hopes of such thinkers as Friedrich Schiller, Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse and Antonio Negri, in the light of the recent achievements of the hacker movement. This book is the first to examine a different kind of political activism that consists in the development of technology from below.

Hacking Capitalism examines the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement, giving exceptional insight into the struggle by hackers over technological development and legislation.