Infinite Hands - singing a part of the history of free software (filk)

- Free Software version of "Finity's End"; original: {lyrics: CJ Cherryh, music: Leslie Fish}.
- filked by Draketo aka Arne Babenhauserheide (draketo.de) (capo 3)

- please check the dedicated site: http://infinite-hands.draketo.de -

Songtext for printing and passing on: pdf | odt (source) | txt
Audio-files: ogg | mp3
This recording is part of the music podcast singing in the winds of time.

==== Infinite Hands ====

C        a             D           a
Infinite Hands build a world to be free, 
    E       G            a
the digital space we all know, 
   C      (a)         D            a
unlimited use has the code that we write, 
    C             G            a
and freedom's the badge we all show.

     C                           D           a
The stuff runs our servers, our desktops and grids, 
     D                    a
by uncounted hands it was made, 
     a                     D         a
set out in the wild on the day it is born, 
        C             D           a
for our free running, long coding trade. 

Ref: 
    C             a          D           a
And no law shall bind us or keep us for long, 
       E       G                    a
for infinity's ours and infinity's free, 
     C          a           D             a
and no country owns us, and no land's our own, 
    C         G        a
for Infinite Hands are we. 

The companies thought that they'd pay us for lines, 
and have all the code for their own. 
"You're company people and company teams, 
your code will now serve us alone."

R.Stallman was only a student that day, 
and he said to himself, thinking deep: 
Farewell to a job, all my code shall be free, 
for what they don't own, they can't keep. 

-Ref-

The miracle came, he did not change his mind
and gathered around him a crew, 
and people could buy his free programs from him, 
sent by mail and his money got through. 

At times others came and they said, "We're free, too, 
you can take code as if in a mall. 
It will be only yours then, just say it's from us, 
and it runs and compiles where you call."

-Ref: But... -

Now Richard M. Stallman was vexed and annoyed, 
and he sent out the word as before: 
"All code must be free, free to use and improve, 
which our license ensures evermore."

But still many coders were lured from our ranks, 
Now for Windows and Apple they strived, 
- spoken in background: And for Amiga, BeOS, IBM, 
    and many more -
their doom and their fall came from finland one day, 
as to GNU a free kernel arrived.

-Ref-

"Come all to U.S.", came a call spreading wide, 
"for there is no place else you can be."
 - spoken in background: DMCA, DRM, TCPA, 
    software patents, idea patents and a war on terror - 
But Richard M. Stallman still sent out the word, 
that all code from now on must be free. 

So code would stay free and our teams did grow strong, 
but some loopholes remained in our side, 
which traitors like TiVo exploited to steal, 
so we needed a change in the right. 

- Ref-

... no words ... 

So our license reshaped by the people and GNU, 
for code contributed to trade, 
And orders be none to withhold us or bind, 
    C                       E          a
No law on our code but the license we made. 

Ref: 
      C             a           D           a
Just that law shall bind us and keep us for long, 
       E       G                   a
for infinity's ours and infinity's free, 
    C          a            D             a
and no country owns us, and no land's our own, 
    C        G               a
for Infinite Hands/Lines are we. 
    C       E        C           (G) a
are we, for Infinite Hands/Lines are we. 

Background:
This is a part of the story of free software, although it misses some details. While "Finity's End" was a work of fiction (the book is avaible on amazon.com, amazon.de and maybe at bookzilla.de), this story really happened and happens today.
For additional information please refer to GNU.

Licensing:
This song is free art avaible under the following four licenses (for details, please visit draketo.de/licenses). Permission to filk her work freely was granted by Leslie Fish (cite: "Anything to keep the internet free: Go for it!" - she's great! - maybe you'd like to listen in on her music?) and CJ Cherryh.

- GNU FDL
- GPLv2 or later or GPLv3 or later
- Art Libre v1.3 or later
- Lizenz für freie Inhalte v1.0 webstar

You can use any of those four licenses, because I can't yet know which license will make it to the general license for free art. Please keep all four licenses when you make changes, so we avoid licensing chaos. It doesn't use creative commons licensing, because cc does not protect the free avaibility of the sources (Just think LaTeX and pdf).
Sources: infinite-hands.draketo.de

It was written by Draketo aka Arne Babenhauserheide, finished on 2007-09-28, improved by Alan Thiesen 2007-10-08.
Copyright © 2007 Arne Babenhauserheide.
It's first public performance was at FilkCONtinental2007 (A filk convention on the Freusburg in Germany)

Missing topics: DRM, SCO, Open Source – I'd be glad to get suggestions from you! ( just use the comment field )

Arne Babenhauserheide

People visited Infinite Hands since 2008-04-17