Steven D'Aprano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:06:08 +1000, Ben Finney wrote: > > > Note that I consider a work free even if it fails to grant “the > > right to distribute misrepresentations of the author's words”, > > because that act is an exercise of undue power over another > > person, and so falls outside the limit imposed by the freedoms of > > others. > > But distributing modified source code *does* misrepresent the > author's words, because you confuse authorship.
That's a possibility. There are other ways to avoid it than to restrict the freedom to redistribute; for example, some licenses state that modified works must clearly state who, when, and what was modified. I would not consider that a non-free restriction, since the freedom of the original distributor *and* the freedom of the redistributor is preserved. > If that is why the gnuplot people do not allow you to distribute > such modified documents, then the only "freedom" they fail to grant > is exactly the one you don't consider necessary for a free licence: > "the right to distribute misrepresentations of the author's words". We're going around in circles. I've already pointed out another freedom they fail to grant: the freedom to redistribute a modified work *as modified*. It's not equivalent to the act of misrepresentation. -- \ “War is God's way of teaching geography to Americans.” —Ambrose | `\ Bierce | _o__) | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
