Re: Desert island test
On Fri, 7 Mar 2008, Ben Finney wrote:
> > consider this: if the bloody murderer will kill you if you reveal
> > your identity (dissident test) the license demanding you do so is
> > nonfree. But if the bloody murderer will kill you if you distribute
> > source, the license demanding you do so is fine.
> >
> > What principle can possibly be used to get that?
>
> The principle that there are certain freedoms essential in a software
> work for that work to be called free.
The point of the desert island (and bloody murderer) examples is to analyze
*whether* a restriction is free. If in order to do this you need a principle
which already defines what restrictions cannot be called free, then the
desert island test is completely useless. You have to decide whether the
restriction is free before you can even try to apply it.
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