On Sun, Jan 03, 2010 at 12:01:15AM +0100, Andrew Dalke wrote: > By that reasoning, if your cause is indeed just, and worthy, then I > don't see why the same view doesn't apply to possible copyright suits.
Because I'm arguing from the position that modern copyright regime is, as a whole, just, and that it's warranted for software authors to have limited monopoly rights over their works. If the copyright system is just, then authors have a right to ask you not to use their works in violation of the law, *even when that law is itself unjust*. An ethical citizen engaged in an act of civil disobedience should not have to worry about whether he's violating the wishes of a copyright holder by using Debian in the process. But this all follows directly from DFSG #6, anyway. Licenses must not discriminate against fields of endeavour to be considered free - even fields of endeavour that are illegal. > Who's to say that the copyright owner doesn't agree with you? The copyright owner might agree with me, but that's DFSG #8 - if the copyright owner gives me a personal license to use his software in acts of civil disobedience that she agrees with, that's still not sufficient for including the work in main. > Or put it this way, if the software said "you may use this for illegal > purposes" then that could be seen as promoting breaking the law. That would be an absurd thing to put in a license, because *by default* your compliance with the law is a matter between you and the state, not between you and the copyright holder. So the license can remain mute on the question, as all DFSG-free licenses I've seen are. > Otherwise I'm going to say that my not following the GPL is justifiable > civil disobedience Er, go ahead and say that, but then you're entirely missing the point. > If the copyright owners of embedded software for vehicles, and of GPS > systems, had the same clause, do you think they would be suing people for > copyright infringement every time you went over the speed limit? What I think is that the possibility that they *could* sue means such a license fails the DFSG. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slanga...@ubuntu.com vor...@debian.org
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