From owner-freebsd-chat  Thu Dec 20  5:54:50 2001
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Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 06:54:17 -0700
To: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen),
	Stephen J Bevan <stephen@etunnels.com>
From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Subject: Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop
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At 02:02 AM 12/20/2001, Gary W. Swearingen wrote:

>And how does that attitude mesh with
>the fourth GNU Freedom:
>
>   The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to
>   the public, so that the whole community benefits.

This "freedom" is not a "freedom" at all. (In truth, it's reminiscent
of George Orwell's "Freedom is slavery.") It is more clearly stated
as, "The freedom to improve the program, but only on the condition
that you are COMPELLED to give up all remuneration for your hard work."

It doesn't sound so "free" if stated in this much less deceptive way.

>What does "public" mean to you?  "Upfront", my foot.  Sure, most people
>soon understand the essential "price" of "free" software, but there's
>a huge amount of misleading propaganda drawing people to help RMS punish
>non-copyleft software developers, many of whom would either prefer to
>not punish closed source developers or other open developers (through an
>escape clause for the latter).  Cigarettes have clear warnings too and
>foolish people still take up smoking by the millions.
>
>But misleading propaganda only helps make the bullying distasteful.

Agree 100%.

--Brett


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