All the angst over the definition of "open source" is mirrored in the fight we will soon have over "proprietary". There's a meaningful difference between traditional proprietary models and "don't compete w me" licenses even if we sometimes lump them together.https://twitter.com/VanL/status/1174759891711483904 …
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Replying to @jamesvasile
And there is a difference between traditional proprietary licenses and Do No Harm (DNH) licenses. There's a spectrum between "proprietary" and "open source" that includes thing like "source available."
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Replying to @mmillions @jamesvasile
But something that's unclear is that "source available" isn't a "middle-ground" of level-of-okayness, it's in general more dangerous than traditional proprietary software; the ability to "see code" that there aren't real rights for community contribution is a dangerous trap IMO
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Replying to @dustyweb @jamesvasile
I agree that it's not a middle ground. DNH and source available are on a spectrum of "freeness" between proprietary and free/open, in as much as they give you more freedoms, even if you're not getting -all- the freedoms.
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Replying to @mmillions @jamesvasile
I am actually arguing to the contrary: I consider them less free than no-source-available!
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I am actively afraid of being exposed to "source available" code, because that's information and ideas that I have now seen but cannot use in my work on free software
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Replying to @dustyweb @jamesvasile
I was thinking about this. On the other hand, as an end user, I like the idea that by seeing code I can better understand and consent to what I am choosing to use.
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My understanding of current case law around this is that you can use ideas you see in other source code (even closed code) in your free software code, as long as you reimplement it. No copy/paste - the text is subject to copyright but the ideas are not.
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Tagging
@pchestek and@o0karen0o to weigh in, because that's what I do whenever these questions come up. :)1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
Copyright infringement isn't just copy paste. The legal concept is idea-expression continuum: no copyright on ideas, only copyright on expression. But there is no clear line between the two. Oracle has so far successfully claimed that the abstraction of Java APIs is copyrightable
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