Re: OSD && DFSG - different purposes - constructive suggestion!
David Turner <novalis@novalis.org> writes:
> On Mon, 2003-03-10 at 08:04, Henning Makholm wrote:
> > > Sure. Compare this to some code using the GPL; same sort of information,
> > > same problem with it: their trade secrets are woven into the functionality
> > > of the code itself.
> >
> > In that case you can simply choose to distribute the program only to
> > people you trust. You can't do this if the license carries an
> > obligation to distribute to a fixed third party, too.
>
> Interesting! I am inclined to agree with this, and point out that the
> AGPL basically puts users in the category of people you have to trust.
> The question is, who needs to be in this category? Do users? Sniffen
> (who secretely wants to write proprietary software) and Bushnell (whose
> heart is in the right place) say no. I think Towns says yes (as do I).
Note Barak Perlmutter's newly proposed "tentacles of evil" test:
3. The Tentacles of Evil test.
Imagine that the author is hired by a large evil corporation
and, now in their thrall, attempts to do the worst to the users
of the program: to make their lives miserable, to make them stop
using the program, to expose them to legal liability, to make
the program non-free, to discover their secrets, etc. The same
can happen to a corporation bought out by a larger corporation
bent on destroying free software in order to maintain its
monopoly and extend its evil empire. The license cannot allow
even the author to take away the required freedoms!
Reply to: