[threatofrain]

I happen to believe that open source is mixed up with social or political issues, because open source inherently increases a user's personal freedom (physically and meaningfully), whereas closed source is inherently wrapped up with issues of legal protection of intellectual work.

Whether or not a user even knows of this tension, or of the open/closed source status of the code they run, does not exclude whether they may experience benefits. I think this because open-sourcing code does not only increase one's own personal freedom (which is unlikely to be exercised alone due to the magnitude of the task), but more realistically it allows the opportunity for an outside skilled individual or group to be looking over the code, and the benefits can be transferred to all users of the software.

It is akin to a person's relationship to the law, where legal writing is not designed for common consumption, but professionals or organizations may digest and disseminate the data to interested groups. While much of legal code may be away from the searchlights of society or its groups, at the very least, when the situation calls upon it, we may look when we want to. It is not requested on a need-to-know basis where we have burden of proof.