On Sep 27, 2006, at 02:16, Evan Prodromou wrote:
I know that there are some Free Software games that use CC data
elements
(interstitial images, music, etc.) I wonder if any also use a game
engine that has been ported to e.g. the PS/2? That's an interesting
thought.
But is it good for Free Software to be ported to platforms that have
been designed to deprive both developers and end users of freedom?
If a gaming platform requires FooBigCo to sign software before it
runs, exercising freedom as in Free Software on that platform is de
facto prevented on a desert island. However, if an iSuck player only
played TPM files but anyone could convert non-TPM files to TPM files
privately, requiring distribution to happen in a non-TPM format and
requiring iSuck owners to apply TPM themselves wouldn't be any more
onerous than the GPL allowing certain action only in private.
I find it strange that Debian is so vigorously defending this fringe
use case. The anti-TPM language is designed to limit the freedom of a
middle man so that the middle-man isn't allowed to limit downstream
freedom. GPL is precedent that it can be free in the DFSG sense to
limit the freedom of middle-men so that they aren't allowed to limit
downstream freedom.
Since the CC licenses don't require distribution of the preferred
form for making modification aka. source code, it is essential that
downstream recipient can extract works for modification and
redistribution without violating any law that protects TPM. I think
that it makes sense for CC licenses to have anti-TPM language and I
don't think that anti-TPM language should make a license non-free.
(More on this: http://hsivonen.iki.fi/free-anti-drm/ )
--
Henri Sivonen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/
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