[sllug-members]: GNU + Linux

[Christian Horne]

wow, you understand it well...

On 5/21/09, Kevin Benko <benko.kevin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thursday 21 May 2009 00:23:43 Christian Horne wrote:
>> the fsf is kind of 'i hate commercial, so you can't use it, and i'll
>> smash your computer if you don't switch!' . kind of too much
>> passion...
>
> The GPL is a license.
> If a fictional developer, say, Joe Bagof Donuts, chooses, of his own
> volition, to license his software under the GPL, then, under the terms of
> the GPL, no one may un-GPL that software or its derivatives. And if some
> other person, say Ped Xing, takes that GPLed software, makes some changes
> to it and refuses to provide the source code that the GPL insists that Ped
> Xing *must* do if he derives something from that GPLed code, then the FSF
> will stomp on Ped Xing. The GPL is a license, and the FSF will enforce the
> terms of that license.
>
> Concerning FSF and commercial software.
>
> Where did you get the idea that RMS/FSF was opposed to commercial software?
> RMS has always said that free software is not a function of price, but of
> liberty, and RMS has always said that there is nothing wrong with selling
> software, he's actually encouraged/supported it in many, if not all, of his
> speeches.
>
> Comercial != proprietary.
> Proprietary software, generally, has conditions and restrictions on its
> use.
>
> For example: some versions Moft FrontPage clearly stipulate, in the EULA,
> that FrontPage users are not permitted to use FrontPage to create anti-Moft
> webpages.
>
> Philosophically, if I pay money for a product, I am certainly going to use
> the product as I see fit... I mean... I paid for it!
> However, in the realm of prorietary software, the EULA may try to tell me
> that I may not use the software to do certain things.... this is wrong.
> And this is what the FSF is fighting against.
>
> However, to the best of my recollection, the FSF hasn't attempted to force
> anyone to license something under the GPL. But if a piece of software *is*
> licenced under the GPL, the FSF will raise holy hell if anyone attempts to
> break that license.
>
> RMS/FSF is about ideas. And that is the strength of the FSF. Because, in
> all facets of life, ideas are the most important. All actions start as
> ideas. WIthin the realm of computers, programming, and operating systems,
> everything that happens startes as an act of creativity and an intuitive
> leap.... ideas. Without a strong basis in philosophical ideas, every
> movement will whither, die, an die... forgotten like tears rain.
>
> Nuts.... I've been philosophising, again.
> We now return you to your regularly scheduled kernel compilation....
>
> --
> Kevin Benko
>
> Knoxville, Tennessee:
> The kind of place where you need to walk through a
> sheep dip on the way out to keep the outside world safe.
>
>


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