Re: GNU FDL (was Re: Bug#141561: gnu-standards: Non-free =?iso-8859-15?q?software in?= main)
Followups to -legal.
On Tue, Apr 09, 2002 at 01:07:02AM -0500, Jeff Licquia wrote:
> I mentioned Thoreau in another thread, and the Bible in another; though
> they are free in every sense, perhaps that would be a place where we
> would need to be careful about modifications. I'm sure John Stuart Mill
> would be horrified to find his works published with "errata" edited by
> J. Edgar Hoover.
There are many things that people are "free" to do which would be
horrifying to many. Publishing a book giving a scientific justification
for the intellectual inferiority of people with asian and african
backgrounds, or using gcc to write viruses and r00tkits, or using gnupg
and libgmp to design a nuclear device for deployment in Jerusalem or
Los Angeles.
The trick is to make sure that people can write rebuttals, or stop
physical actions that're wrong, not to stop people from exercising purely
intellectual freedoms, like rewriting documentation or using programs.
And we have the non-free section for people who don't agree with that
philosophy in a completely wholehearted manner (like the Bitkeeper
people, eg).
Cheers,
aj
--
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.
``BAM! Science triumphs again!''
-- http://www.angryflower.com/vegeta.gif
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