Similarites between Aikido and Free Software, by Stefan Schroeder

In the past decade a social movement gained momentum that is built around the idea that computer software should be “free.” In this context it is important to distinguish the two different meanings of the English word “free”: Free as in free speech or free as in free beer (meaning you do not have to pay). While most businesses see the use of open source software mainly as another opportunity to reduce cost by dumping expensive proprietary software, the free software community generally frowns upon this, knowing that - although free software can generally be downloaded for free from the internet - there are costs, and pointing out that they are fighting for liberty in a very basic sense.

Before I explain why this has something to do with Aikido, let me summarize the four basic rights that Free Software grants:

These are the freedom to
1. Use/Run the software for any purpose,
2. Study the software (source code),
3. Modify the software (source code),
4. Redistribute the software (including the source code).

Obviously these rights are not granted by proprietary software vendors and commonly most people do not care.

Richard Stallmann, one of the leading figures of the free software movement compared writing software with cooking. Someone cooks for you and you enjoy a wonderful meal, you ask for the recipe and you begin to cook yourself (Use). You read the recipe (Study). Perhaps you want to improve the meal with one ingredient or the other or don’t like one or the other ingredient. So you modify it (Modify) and at your next party, friends ask you for the new recipe and you share it (Redistribute).

I found interesting similarities between Aikido and the way Aikido is distributed and free software and the way free software is distributed. Let us step through the above list and see how Aikido grants the same rights like free software and how Aikido would “benefit”, if it were a multimillion dollar company (lets call it “Aikido Inc.”)

1. Freedom to use. While most Aikidoka share the view that it is possible to integrate the principles of Aikido in your daily life, Aikido is still a method of self defense and you are free to use it when attacked. This corresponds to (I hope) most national laws, where you are free to take measures to protect yourself from an attack. You don’t have to ask for permission to use Aikido and you don’t have to pay for using Aikido. No one is allowed to restrict your use of Aikido for a specific purpose.

2. Freedom to study. The knowledge of Aikido is free. Normally, you have to pay for Aikido lessons, but this money is not a payment for Aikido itself, but for the mortgage of the training hall (dojo), water, electricity or allowance for the teacher. (Many Aikidoka do not make a living through Aikido, because they feel uneasy about selling Aikido. See Morihiro Saito, Aikido Journal Article 562)

The lower these costs, the less you have to pay. There is no Aikido fee as such, you can even study Aikido from a book, that you can borrow from the library (please, don’t do this).

3. Freedom to modify. Aikido is always in flux. Aikido historians are often perplexed by the way Aikido changed during the career of the founder of Aikido Morihei Ueshiba, but change is built into the system. Flexibility and adaptivity to circumstances and individuals is an integral parts of any worthwhile martial art. Therefore you are allowed, I even would state obliged, to modify the techniques in a way that suits your personal, cultural and other preferences. This is the reason, why there never can be a book “Complete Aikido”, really meaning it. Everybody knows there are as many Aikidos as there are Aikidoka.

4. Freedom to distribute. After you learned Aikido for some years you might feel, that you want to give back some of the values you received from the Aikido community. Perhaps you became one of the best Aikidoka in the area. And you want to share your knowledge with your fellow Aikidoka. While it is common to open a club or school within a larger framework (there are several) you are basically free to open your dojo without the permission of anyone. There might be permissions you have to get from a state authority (France?), but those are not interested in profit, but want to protect the general public from frauds. You don’t pay to increase the income of share holders.

I hope you now see the similarities between Aikido and free software. Now why is this important? I want to explain the importance of free software by envisioning what the world would look like, if Aikido were not free (like most software is today). I’d like to repeat that we are not talking about money here. Common people who simply “want to get the job done” are easily exploited by big companies and PR-campaigns. The companies turned the users desire into a multi-million dollar industry that has some disadvantages which were not in the control of the users until free software arrived. Free software advocates are not opposed to proprietary software. Anyone should freely choose the software that fits his or her requirements best.

Shamefully the software vendors use some unfair methods to hinder users to try alternatives to their software (for example by using non-standard file formats that lock out users, that do not use the proprietary software), although they might have a well designed product that is sold at a fair price. Now many people feel that this is not the case. Especially in poor countries the license fees for proprietary software are not affordable. Admittedly big companies are giving away cheaper or even free licenses to schools in the third world, because of what they call “social responsibility”, but I cannot get rid of the feeling, that they simply fear that the use of free software in these countries might set an example and become a threat to their business model (domino theory).

Now think of a world, where Aikido was invented by an American businessman, who established “Aikido Inc.” During the second World War his martial art gained popularity, he spreads some of his subcontractors in the country to distribute Aikido. They open dojos and advertise to attract students. Those who enter a dojo have to pay not only for the rooms, but also for the benefit of Aikido Inc. and its shareholders. When you join a dojo you have to sign a license (End User License Agreement) in which you give away the basic rights that free software grants:

1. Freedom to use: “Aikido Inc. allows that you use Aikido … as long as it is not used against members of Aikido Inc. and their representatives.” could be a sentence in the license in accordance with a passage in licenses that software manufacturers use.

2. Freedom to study: “You may not study the parts, mechanics or inherent structures of Aikido.” That means you are only allowed to use the techniques as a whole in the context shown in class.

3. Freedom to modify: “You may not modify any Aikido technique.” Advanced students of Aikido will claim that this would strangle Aikido quite a lot and would destroy the creativity in a way that makes Aikido almost useless as an art.

4. Freedom to redistribute: “You may not teach Aikido or show techniques to anyone outside the dojo without obtaining a teaching license from Aikido Inc.” The prohibition to freely share Aikido is one of the basic foundations for a monopoly. If someone has total control about who teaches, this individual has a sort of tyrannic power over the knowledge.

As you can see, the free software movement and Aikido, although having not much in common at first glance, are based on the same basic principles of freedom and sharing. Now, what is our conclusion? Decide for yourself.

Further reading:

If you want to try Free Software with Windows(TM) for the very first time, try

Mozilla Firefox, a free web browser,

Openoffice.org, a free office suite,

Mozilla Thunderbird, a free mail client

or one of the vast number of applications on the Opendisc:

http://theopendisc.com/

If you’re brave, you should try a Linux live CD, that will run Linux from your CD drive without touching your harddrive, e.g. Ubuntu-Linux.

http://www.ubuntu.org

Most likely there will be a localized version in your native language.

Free-software

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

Software Patents — a danger to democracy

http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/swpat/letter-20050606.en.html

What’s the problem with word-attachments

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/sylvester-response.html

Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution

- A free book with essays by leading free/open source-software developers -

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html

January 11^th, 2008 (add comment)