OT - Closing Off An Open-Source Product

[Chris Gonnerman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Prescod" <paulp at ActiveState.com>
Subject: Re: OT - Closing Off An Open-Source Product


> Chris Watson wrote:
> >
> > First lets agree on something if we can. I have always made it clear the
> > GPL is not a free license. The delusion that it is boggles me.
>
> The GPL tried to protect the freedom of end-users to modify and
> redistribute their code. Most people do not believe that this is a
> legitimate freedom like freedom of speech or assembly but Richard
> Stallman does. I don't think that there is an argument that will
> persuade a person one way or another. If freedoms could be proven, that
> famous document would probably start: "Not everyone holds these truths
> to be self-evident, so we've worked up a proof of them as Appendix A."

Very clear explanation.  I never really thought of it that way...  RMS uses
the biblical "golden rule" as his guiding theory, and that's always how I
explained it, but your point clarifies it for me.

> Either you believe in IP or you don't. Either you believe in the freedom
> to copy whatever you want, whenever you want, or you don't. So I don't
> see how further argument would resolve anything.

How about if you both do and don't believe in IP?  In principle, the idea
that a programmer (author, artist, etc.) should be given primary
money-making
control over his or her work is quite reasonable (to me anyway).  However,
IP (copyright and patent) is *used* as a Big Club by bigger guys to *smack*
little guys, rather than as a protection for the little guys against the
bigger ones.

For that reason I am very suspicious of anyone who even *mentions* IP to me
(unless I know they are talking about Internet Protocol :-).  GPL is a
direct affront to those people specifically.

The Internet has turned IP on it's ear.  How do you "protect" software or
other published works in a world where rapid communication makes your
"enemies" far more powerful than you can ever hope to be?  Free software is
protected by various Free Software and/or Open Source licenses; I submit
that the "hacker ethic" is the real protection here anyway, because if
a "big guy" steals a major piece of, oh, say, Apache and incorporates it
in a closed source program, it's darn hard to prove.

In summary (yes, you can breathe now) I think (fear? hope?) that IP in the
current sense is doomed.  Napster may go down in flames, but OpenNap will
likely live forever... I think that says it all.