Re: GNU FDL (was Re: Bug#141561: gnu-standards: Non-free software in main)

[Jeff Licquia <licquia@debian.org>]

On Tue, 2002-04-09 at 01:15, Anthony Towns wrote:
> 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).

Well spoken.


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