Glenn Maynard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I don't think being forced to actively send changes (or changelogs) upstream > is any different than having to produce source on demand; both discriminate > against people who *can't* publically release changes, such as people under > NDA.
The NDA is a weak example, but there is a strong one of why this is an important freedom. Just as we consider the "desert island" case as one of the corner cases in our head that we must protect, there is also the "political dissident" case. It must be possible for chinese programmer dissidents to modify the software and distribute their modifications to their friends without entailing extra risk that their modifications must be publicized to the world. Thomas
