Re: Debian FreeBSD
Dale,
Suffice it to say that your message makes me both extremely angry and
extremely sad. I am trying to be as civil as pssible in my response.
Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net> writes:
> The BSD License is _specificly_ called out in "10. Example Licenses" of
> the DFSG as a compliant license. You are suggesting that SPI _not_ support
> a DFSG compliant product?
You are demonstrating a lack of understanding of the purpose and
reasons for creation of the DFSG. The DFSG was designed to identify
which non-GPL licenses were sufficiently free to allow us to
distribute software under them in main. It is NOT an endorsement of
any particular such license, nor does it mean that we must support
them, nor does it mean that we think they're good.
> The author and copyright holder of the software can freely release one
> version of the code under the GPL and another under a completely closed
> license. Neither one effects the other, but by your logic I could not
> support this author's efforts, as they "will" become proprietary.
Here is where your greatest flaw comes in. It saddens me to think how
much Debian's moral and ethical center has slipped since I first used
the system several years back. Our entire Free Software movement is
centered around the idea that software should not have owners and that
it should never be proprietary. Here you, a Debian developer, are
stating that not only is it OK for an author to release proprietary
software, but furthermore that I should not criticize such. This goes
against everything Debian stands for, and goes against our Social
Contract.
> The same is true of the BSD license, except that it is more honest, and
> provides the same rights to the end user that the author has, that is the
> right to release modified work under a different license. The "parent"
> free version does not vanish under those circumstances, and continues to
> provide a "free" development path.
My right to do anything I want to with my hand (as most would say I
have a right to) ends the moment my clenched fist impacts your nose.
That is, it ends when it takes away your right to live without being
punched in the face. Perhaps you would rather say that my right to do
whatever I want with my arm is absolute; perhaps your attitude would
change if I am allowed to punch you in the face.
Your right to do whatever you want with software ends when it takes
away my right to do the same as you have. This is the primary and
fatal flaw of the BSD license.
-- John
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