On Fri, Apr 28, 2006 at 03:18:57PM -0500, Mike McCarty wrote: > Paul D. Smith wrote: > >What the GPL is all about is maximizing the amount of available free > >software (where "free" is defined by the traditional freedoms to > >examine, modify, and redistribute, as discussed on the FSF's web site). > >That goal means that some individual freedoms are not available, but > >this isn't uncommon: there is often a trade-off between individual > >freedoms, and freedom of the group in general. > > We certainly agree there, except I would omit the phrase "traditional > freedoms" and substitute "privilege" and add "restricted privilege" > before "redistribute". > Hi Mike, The only situation where 'Freedom' was thought of as a priviige to me harkens back to the CCCP. You seem to be coming from a viewpoint that confuses me. In the US, and UK, afaik, there are some forms of agreed upon Freedoms: speech, religion, ownership of propery, etc. Copyright is a means of 'owning property' even if its not the sold kind like a rock but an originally worded piece of software (in the DFSG sense). Also, we do not live in an anarchy but a society where people usually agree to enter into these agreement like observing copyright and do things like sharing. The GPL is about entering into an agreement of sharing as opposed to the 'freedom' of giving stuff away without expecting anything back. If you stand on a street corner giving dollar bills away and expect nothing in return, that is fine by me, put it doesnt expect anything from anybody and will not make the work better. The idea is to give stuff away but ask the reciepent to enter into to the ageement to share with others, sure this is a restriction but only as opposed to living in a society where there is no sharing, which is a place where I would not want to exists. Cheers, -- | .''`. == Debian GNU/Linux == | my web site: | | : :' : The Universal | debian.home.pipeline.com | | `. `' Operating System | go to counter.li.org and | | `- http://www.debian.org/ | be counted! #238656 | | my keysever: pgp.mit.edu | my NPO: cfsg.org |
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