Volunteer Labor
Similar to institutional independence, volunteer labor frees participants of the influences of capital. Volunteer labor is one way to ensure that the labor is is self-valorizing (i.e., the product and process have value in of themselves)—which is more important than the fact that it is free (gratis).
Results:
Libre software communities' labor is, on the whole, self-valorizing. As volunteer based projects and developers are funded, their work, while no longer volunteer, retains its self valorizing quality.
Software is more responsive to the needs of its users, regardless of their financial resources.
Counterexamples:
Doctors and their relationship to the pharmaceutical and health industries.
Academic scientists and grants from military and corporate interests which leads to a growing proprietarization of academic research.