RE: [gentoo-user] 2 to 3??

[<burlingk@cv63.navy.mil>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Volker Armin Hemmann 
> [mailto:volker.armin.hemmann@tu-clausthal.de] 
> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 1:20 AM
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] 2 to 3??
> 
> 
> On Dienstag, 17. Juli 2007, Abraham Marín Pérez wrote:
> > burlingk@cv63.navy.mil escribió:
> > >> -----Original Message-----

> > Ok, so good intentions are falling apart and being substituted by 
> > mercantile minds, but still I can't see how freedom one can be 
> > threatened while enhancing freedom three, it just seems 
> contradictory 
> > to me.
> >
> > --
> 
> please tell me, what are these 'four freedoms' and how are 
> they 'enhancend', 
> when they are additional restrictions added about how I can 
> use the software?
> -- 


Sounds like three of us agree on something at least.  ^^;;
The Four Freedoms:

0:  The freedom to use software as you wish.
1:  The freedom to study the code and modify it to meet your needs.
2:  The freedom to copy and distribute the software so that you can help your neighbors.
3:  The freedom to improve the program, and be allowed to release those improvements to the public.

These four freedoms are core to the Free Software movement, and are shared in
many ways by the Open Source movement as well.

Many people do not see how the GPLv3 threatens these freedoms.

I don't want people to take my word for it.  My worries are not just FUD.
I encourage people to read the license.  In fact, read GPLv2 as well. :)

When they are side by side it is even easier to see the differences.

Most importantly, read the preambles of both.

The preamble of Version 2 was almost unchanged from the original preamble written for the first GPL license.  It was eloquent.  It was convincing.  It was awe inspiring.

The new preamble is only changed a little, but those changes make it sound like the words of a scared child holding back the boogie man with nothing more than a security blanket.

It is hard to explain my feelings about the new license.

I have accused a few people of Zealotry, but I myself do have strong feelings on the subject.  When I read the two licenses side by side I feel a sense of sadness, and betrayal.  Those who have fought for so long for freedom are now stomping it out in an over reactionary move to try to prevent what they see as a threat.

They took a license that was a work of art that stood as an example to two loosely bound movements, and ran it through the shredder.  It is like looking upon the battle flag of your own nation with a moment of pride, only to notice that some vandal has written seditious slurs all over it.

I suppose that in it's own way, that is it's own form of Zealotry.  My cause is freedom in the truest since.  The GPL has never been a perfect icon of that freedom, however it was still a proud example of movement towards that ideal.  What they have made of it in the last year and a half however, is a mockery of everything that it ever stood for.  I won't use version 3 of the license.  Any software that I do choose to release under GPL will be released using version 2.

The temptation is there to include the optional wording not to allow future versions of the GPL, and only version 2, however that would be the same kind of restrictiveness that I am speaking against, so I would be honor bound to resist such a move.

As it stands, I may be more likely to use the MIT or BSD licenses.  They have their following, and leave very little to argue when it comes to freedom. ^^;




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