[Discuss] OSS licenses (was Home NAS redux)

[richard.pieri at gmail.com (Rich Pieri)]

On Wed, 9 Jan 2013 05:21:09 -0500
John Abreau <abreauj at gmail.com> wrote:

> Under democracy, citizens are prohibited from seizing power by force
> and imposing a military dictatorship on their fellow citizens. Under
> anarchy, citizens are not so prohibited.

This nation was founded by citizens seizing power by force of arms.

> The equivalent CDDL-type argument would be that anarchy is "more free"
> because you're not prohibited from taking away everyone else's
> freedom.

The CDDL is not anarchy. It is a free software license. A more apt
analogy would be to compare the GPL to public domain.

> It strikes me as absurd to claim that a system that fails to protect
> freedom is somehow "more free".

Freedom is the state of being without restrictions. When comparing two
licenses, the one that imposes the fewer restrictions on licensees is
the more free of the two. The GPL places more restrictions on licensees
than the CDDL does, therefore the GPL is less free than the CDDL.

To turn it around: compelled freedom is not freedom.

-- 
Rich P.