On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:05:16 -0800 Ryan Corder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I understand and appreciate the "freedom" that is defined by both the > BSD and GPL licenses; that of ensuring the authors continual right of > ownership. However, in terms of true freedom, both have limitations in > place. It occurs to me that there is some wide misuse of the words Freedom and Free in open-software community. To be short, if somewhat cryptic, "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose". Free needs context, as in "MSG-Free brocolli" or "Free Beer". What "Free" software is about is enabling the Liberty of other people. Liberty is a peculiar kind of freedom that depends upon the use other people's efforts in some unconstrained or previously unimaginable manner: Liberty might get you to the moon, but freedom will only get you as high as you can jump. Proprietary systems rigidly constrain what can be accomplished with them to activities the owners imagine will profit them, thus the user is limited to "pre-approved" uses where novelty is strongly discouraged. Dhu
