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Re: Adobe open source license -- is this licence free?



On Thu, Jan 26, 2006 at 01:45:33PM -0500, Michael Poole wrote:
> > Michael> Thus it is a form of discrimination.  It imposes costs (conditional,
> > Michael> but still costs) on some people that it does not impose on
> > Michael> others.
> > 
> > As does every single license on earth, because you could be sued in a
> > foreign country or not depending on the law of the land.
> 
> Again, this is not something imposed by the license.  The fact that a
> license is mute as to human rights or being able to use cryptographic
> software does not mean that it is non-free in countries that neglect
> human rights or that outlaw cryptography.  Quite simply, a free
> software license should not attempt to correct wrongs that exist
> outside of the software.

Well, I don't mind when they try to do that, if the attempt doesn't have
negative side-effects.  For example, in principle, I don't mind the
anti-DMCA clauses.  In practice, of course, they need to be scrutinized
to be sure they don't have unintended negative consequences.

It's those negative consequences that can make the license non-free.

-- 
Glenn Maynard



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