"The following is a transcript of a lecture given by Richard Stallman in Zagreb (Croatia/Hrvatska) on March 9th 2006. The lecture was given in English. Richard Stallman launched the GNU project in 1983, and with it the Free Software movement. Stallman is the president of FSF - a sister organisation of FSFE. Transcription of this presentation was undertaken by Ciarán O'Riordan."
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Member since:2005-11-11
//Why should it matter what I want to do with it? If I want to make a change to it, but keep the changes to myself and commercialize it//
If you want to do that, you are using someone else's efforts to create a product for yourself to profit from at the expense of yet other people.
That is pure greed. You are asking for money for jam. You are asking for other people to hand you a living.
That is why doing what you suggest is morally wrong, and hence that is why it matters.
People don't want to be ripped off. It is a high priority that authors of free software don't want you to be able to "keep the changes to yourself and commercialize it". That is the precise thing that you may not do ... sponge off the efforts of others, and then charge innocent end customers to support your stealing.
Member since:2006-09-18
hal2k1: "If you want to do that, you are using someone else's efforts to create a product for yourself to profit from at the expense of yet other people.
That is pure greed. You are asking for money for jam. You are asking for other people to hand you a living.
That is why doing what you suggest is morally wrong, and hence that is why it matters. ?"
Who's expense... it's given away? Just like our thoughts on this subject, in this forum. You quoted someone, included it in your post.... did doing that cost tomcat anything somehow? Are you immoral for using his ideas to help define your point? Don't call it FREE if it's not free.
Member since:2006-01-24
tomcat wrote:
-"Why should it matter what I want to do with it? If I want to make a change to it, but keep the changes to myself and commercialize it, that doesn't alter your "freedom" to use the original source code at all."
it obviously matters to all those developers who choose to licence their code under GPL. and no, I don't think it's so much a ideological choice for most developers as a pragmatic one. if they release their code under GPL, they will be sure to benefit if someone improves/continues on their code and distributes it. hence in that context they will become end-users and recieve the same rights they granted the recipients of their code.
and no, I'm not saying that GPL is the 'best' licence. different licences suits different developers, and I do not argue against people wanting to keep their code propriety or licence it under BSD, MIT, public domain or whatever. just as I can't understand why some people would argue against a developers right to licence his code under GPL.
Member since:2006-09-18
"if they release their code under GPL, they will be sure to benefit if someone improves/continues on their code and distributes it."
So it's not Free, the developers profit from it (not money, but they get someone's development free) And as noted earlier, there are many GPL developers who make a profit somehow from the industry... so I guess they do get $. Interesting....
I agree there should be different licenses, and I like the variety etc. I just also think people shouldn't call GPL software Free as in speech or beer. It's more like Free as in broadcast TV. I DL opensuse and it's basically a big ad for Novell, especially when I want to stop 'playing' with it and use it for real in my enterprise.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2006-09-18
"When has Stallman ever advocated violating a so-called "commercial license"? -rajj"
Near the beginning of the article we're discussing.
"[Section: Freedom two]
Freedom two is essential on fundamental ethical grounds, so that you can live an upright, ethical life as a member of your community. If you use a program that does not give you freedom number two, you're in danger of falling at any moment into a moral dilema. When your friend says "that's a nice program, could I have a copy?" At that moment, you will have to choose between two evils. One evil is: give your friend a copy and violate the licence of the program. The other evil is: deny your friend a copy and comply with the licence of the program.
Once you are in that situation, you should choose the lesser evil. The lesser evil is to give your friend a copy and violate the licence of the program. -Stallman" followed by [laughter]
I would say maybe he was joking because of the laughter... but then he goes on to explain "It may be the right thing to do, but it's not entirely good."
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. We’ll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that it’s usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing."The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Member since:
2006-01-06
Eh? I'm confused.
Read the original comment that I was replying to. Stallman has no problem with anyone violating a commercial license, but he's more than ready to sue you if you violate the GPL. His hypocrisy is rank.
What on earth are you on about, seriously I've read it about 10 times. I'm absolutely certain that if you write code you can do whatever you want with it.
Licence it however you want; re-license it; let it sit on your hard drive; put it in a skip.
Unless your talking about making a change to *someone else's code*
Why should it matter what I want to do with it? If I want to make a change to it, but keep the changes to myself and commercialize it, that doesn't alter your "freedom" to use the original source code at all. Stallman's ideology is ultimately based on the cynical premise that commercial applications of software will inevitably eclipse those contributed by the open source community -- which I completely disagree with.