Re: Poll results: User views on the FDL issue
Glenn Maynard wrote:
On Wed, Apr 20, 2005 at 12:21:38AM -0400, Marty wrote:
By protecting the authors' rights, same as the GPL. You must have
missed by main point.
You seem to be confused. The GPL is not primarily designed to protect
the author's rights. It's designed to protect *user's* rights, which
always come first.
Look at the word "copyright." Notice the last 5 letters. Now, who
holds it, with respect to GPL'ed software? Who gets to pick that
license in the first place? Who can change it? Who's entitled to
enforce it in court? I see the GPL as protecting the author's right to
protect his offering to the community.
But I see your point, I guess, if you define freedom as "what's in it
for me." I doubt it's the FSF's philosphy, although unlike you I can't
presume to speak for them.
A complete prohibition of modification does not
protect user's rights; on the contrary, it abolishes them.
That's fine with me, because I don't think I have the right to change
somebody else's speech anyway, much less the need, just so I can call it
my own. (I tried it once in a high school term paper and got busted.)
(Your argument would seem to mean that Qmail is free, because its
complete prohibition of modification protects its author's rights.)
bzzz Bad argument. Point's deducted. (I don't even like this game.)
I'll be disappointed is nobody has come up with a better argument that
off-topic invariant sections can restrict "freedom."
I'm quite confused as to how anyone can possibly claim that something
which can't be modified at all is "free".
At least now you admit the truth about which one of us is confused.
The onus is always on the person placing restrictions on users to show
that the restriction does not impede freedom. Restrictions are not
Free by default; they must be proven, and the few people claiming
invariant sections are "free" have so far utterly failed to do so.
If this were publishing house and debian was about something other than
software (at least, something else that everyone could agree on), I
might continue persuing this, but I honestly think it's just wasting
time and people should just get back to releasing sarge.
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