[Discuss] Why use Linux?

[Shirley Márquez Dúlcey]

The GPL has always denied some freedoms to developers, such as the
right to exclusively make money from their work. The anti-TiVo clause
in GPLv3 is an additional constraint, and the rarely seen Affero
license further limits developers. (Basically, the Affero license is
GPLv3 with the additional provision that if you make software
available as a service you have to make the source code available,
just as you would if you distributed source or binary code for use by
others.)

There are times when the rights of users and the rights of developers
are in direct opposition, and it is impossible to make the situation
better for one group without making it worse for the other. But the
amount of good gained by one group can exceed the amount lost by the
other, and all developers are also users so their losses on their own
coding are counterbalanced by their gains from the work of others.
Almost no code is the work of one person or even one company alone;
any program of significance contains libraries and other code that
come from others and is developed using tools created by others.

On balance, free software makes the world a better place than it would
be if all software were proprietary. More free software would make it
even better.

On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 4:45 PM, Richard Pieri <richard.pieri at gmail.com> wrote:
> John Abreau wrote:
>>
>> More precisely, RMS says that he makes no distinction between users and
>> developers, because developers are also users. He argues that limiting
>> freedom to only a subset of users is divisive and antithetical to the
>> concept of freedom.
>
>
> That's what RMS says. The "anti-Tivoization" clause of the GPLv3 says
> something quite different. It exists specifically to deny developers some of
> their freedoms to use and develop software and hardware.
>
>
>
>> Freedom only for developers is kind of like a democracy where only
>> wealthy landowners are allowed to vote.
>
>
> As if freedom only for users is any better.
>
>
> --
> Rich P.
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