[Discuss] Why use Linux?

[markw at mohawksoft.com]

> The GPL has always denied some freedoms to developers, such as the
> right to exclusively make money from their work.

Ahh, there in lies the lies that lairs lie about the GPL. The GPL does not
deny any developer the right to make money from their work. Lies! It only
denies a developer from using someone else's work as if it were their own.
If I were to modify someone else's code, I should think I no right to
modify it without permission.

NOTHING forbids a developer making money from their own work. The GPL is
only involved when a developer uses someone else's work as the basis for
their own or as part of an aggregate product. The developer should not
base their work on GPL code if they do not like the conditions by which
they acquire it in the first place.

I HATE this lie every time I see someone repeat it. Not liking someone
else's license means you don't use their code. It does not forbid a
developer from making money from their own 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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