[Discuss] OSS licenses (was Home NAS redux)

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 08:47:41AM -0500, Mark Woodward wrote:
> On 01/09/2013 07:39 PM, Edward Ned Harvey (blu) wrote:
> >This is not a freedom of denying freedom.  It does not deny any
> >freedom - Any 3rd party recipient of the non-free software can
> >still obtain the free software.
> 
> Think about what happened to Kerberos under the MIT license. You
> always ignore this point in your replies and this is a fundamental
> point in the debate.

I've pointed out several times in this thread that it's unlikely that
using GPL for Kerberos would have made any difference, because if it
were GPL, Microsoft could easily either have used a clean-room
implementation, or written their own completely proprietary
work-alike.  How would that be better?

I've also pointed out that if you don't like it, that's too bad for
you...  The people who wrote the software expressly gave Microsoft
permission to do what they did.  

I've also pointed out that it's still interoperable, if you deploy it
correctly.  

I've also pointed out that MIT Kerberos itself is still completely
free, and there's been no loss of freedom in that regard.

So what exactly is the problem with what happened to MIT Kerberos?

> You acquired free software. You have the freedom to do so. You
> modify the free software. You have the freedom to do so. What gives
> you the moral or ethical right to create a non-free product with
> that free software you got for free? 

THE LICENSE THAT YOU GOT THE ORIGINAL SOFTWARE UNDER.  IT SAYS YOU
HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THAT.  

If the people who wrote the software thinks it's OK, what right do you
have to contradict them?  IT'S NOT YOUR WORK.

> >>the freedom to deny freedom is not a freedom.
> >Quit saying that, because there has not yet been any situation
> >described where anybody has the power to deny anybody else's
> >freedom.  It sounds like an extremist chest-thumping rhetoric.

I completely agree.
 
-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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