This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more
Conversation
Replying to
Quote Tweet
(I would make an exception for thoughts in the form of "to prevent downstream recipients from not receiving the same freedoms granted by the license")
Show this thread
1
This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more
No, it's an exception that lets you decide whether to grant freedoms to *direct* users or to *all* users.
This is a point where the renaming of free software to open source software dalla short. Free software is about users not about recipients of code.
2
This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more
Ensuring that everybody gets to have exactly the same freedoms is the opposite of preventing X from doing Y. Sure it's possible to use it as a *means* of preventing X from doing Y, but it is a constructive way to introduce such limitations because it builds a level playing field.
2
This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more
No, because *everybody* benefits from them. But FWIW I've been writing GPL software for over 20 years and I don't even work for Amazon or any other CSP so perhaps you're thinking of someone else.
1
1
GPL has license incompatibilities even with popular licenses also considered Free Software licenses. It isn't a theoretical issue. As one example, you can't use Linux kernel code in glibc or vice versa. It definitely restricts more than just distributing proprietary code with it.
1
Yes, on a licence-by-license basis the obligations that the community has generally accepted are sometimes incompatible with the goals for a particular package (like glibc), or impossible to satisfy when combined together (like GPLv2-only + Apache 2.0)
apache.org/licenses/GPL-c
1
These incompatibilities wouldn't exist if GPL didn't have non-free usage restrictions. By simply forbidding restrictions it doesn't enforce, it's a non-free license itself even if you make an exception for enforcing that the software remains under your definition of freedom.
I don't think that kind of exception actually makes any sense. It requires a lot of mental gymnastics. However, if we assume it makes sense, GPL is still non-free because that isn't what it enforces. It doesn't define that concept of freedom and then enforce keeping it.
For me, it has been (for decades) a matter of semantics. Often copyleft licenses are called "restrictive". Yes, the obligations of copyleft licenses /could/ be viewed as restrictive on the recipient's "free usage" of the software.
1
Another way of saying restrictive is non-free. I don't think copyright is legitimate in the first place.
I see no problem with someone not releasing their source code. The problem is a law disallowing you from reverse engineering and copying it. That's what restricts freedom.
1
1
Show replies