Pat wrote (Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:51:34 +1000)

It looks like in ESR's framework this falls mainly under the topic of "agency harm" - 'They can use this asymmetry to restrict your choices, control your data, and extract rent from you. I?ll call this ?agency harm?'.

A good PPT talk about this particular problem of proprietary software by a US researcher is at http://www.slideshare.net/ianfoster/e-science-foster-december-2010

cheers, Pat.

Thanks, Pat. Very interesting read. I'm generally with RMS on these things. I'm not as committed in the praxis - yes, we can all do better - but the there needs to be aims to reach for which focus on reducing the negative consequences of poorly considered short-term compromises. Sometimes we don't have the fights we should have had. Regards, Patrick