[OT] What is Open Source? (was Re: ANN: Twisted 0.16.0...)

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "Terry" == Terry Reedy <tejarex at yahoo.com> writes:

    Terry> "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen at xemacs.org> wrote in message
    Terry> news:87wuv9xdr8.fsf at tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp...

    >> I do have issues with some GPL advocates, because their
    >> arguments amount to claiming that nobody should have property
    >> rights in his own code.  (rms says this explicitly, but very
    >> few are so courageous as he.)

    Terry> Interersting.  If so, then RMS is 'guilty' of an almost
    Terry> humorous contradiction.

If you like.  But know that rms is well aware of the paradox, and
considers that the joke is on the society which attempts to implement
an immoral legal system.

rms manages to create an arena within society which implements a close
approximation to his moral scheme despite the fact that most people do
not agree with him, and within the framework of society's explicit
conventions.  The use of property rights to allow a body of software
to be simultaneously publically available to all, yet unappropriatable
by those who would profit by selectively withholding it, is a glorious
legal hack.

I disagree with his moral principle, but applaud his (and his
lawyers') creativity.  And the GPL is a useful tool for free software
and open source software advocates alike.


-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
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