Re: [PubSoft] [rms@gnu.org: Nonprofits and free software]

At 11:52 23.01.2003 +0000, Robert J. Chassell wrote:
-------------------------
>When you talk about software freedom, almost everyone understands
>fairly quickly.

This is your experience in your country. My experience here is different.

>When you talk about "Open Source Software", you need to explain

No, in a "law less" (or call it "free"?) situation, you don't have to
explain anything. I just say "publish your source for everybody to see"!

> that
>the phrase means that you and others have the freedom to use, copy,
>study, modify, and redistribute the software, which is to say, you
>have to talk about your and others' freedom.

Bob, it seems difficult for you to imagine the situation. You talk about
"freedom", because somebody has previously taken it away from you. Due to
the lack of it, you have an understanding of it. Imagine an aboriginal very
free society, where people feel free, and then you come and tell them that
they have to fight for their freedom. They will not understand you. OK,
that picture is a bit beyond the reality here, but not too much: People
(still) do have de-facto the freedom to copy, use and re-distribute every
SW. They don't care about licenses, "the right to use some SW", because
that concept is alien to them. You can buy here CDs with MS SW which has an
included text file that says "copyright by company XYZ, address:...,
tel.no......" They have not a clue, what copyright means. The missing
possibility to study and modify the program (due to the lack of the source)
is not considered as a lack of "freedom" - same like the missing
possibility to peek into your bathroom from the street is not considered as
a lack of "freedom".

Stefan

PS: Sorry for not cutting out previous posts, but including the whole in my
reply. By that members of the OSS list in Vietnam can see the whole
conversation: ...

At 11:52 23.01.2003 +0000, Robert J. Chassell wrote:
-------------------------
> If we campaign, that programmers should produce "Free Software",
> then we have to do also a lot of explanation work about what
> Free Software is, and what makes it different from Freeware,
> etc.
>
>Yes. This is an opportunity for you to talk about your and others'
>freedom use, copy, study, modify, and redistribute software.
>
>Let me put this another way: recently I saw an article that said that
>Microsoft was going to `open source' its code. It turned out that
>what the journalist meant was that some people in a government would
>be permitted to look at the code under a non-disclosure agreement.
>And Microsoft was only going to show its code to people who lived in
>places where Microsoft would be confident the local police and courts
>would enforce the non-disclosure agreement.
>
>The people looking would not have the freedom to share the code.
>
>The phrase `open source' is confusing.
>
>When you talk about software freedom, almost everyone understands
>fairly quickly.
>
> If on the other side, we call on them to produce "Open Source
> Software", then we can, but don't have to explain much more. ....
>
>On the contrary, you have to explain that "Open Source Software" is
>not what Microsoft does when it shows its code under a non-disclosure
>agreement. (Quick question: how much do you benefit in Vietnam from
>Microsoft showing its source code to the US National Security Agency
>under a non-disclosure agreement? Can you set up a commercial free
>software business and sell me a CD with that source code on it, or
>with modifications to that source code?)
>
>When you talk about "Open Source Software", you need to explain that
>the phrase means that you and others have the freedom to use, copy,
>study, modify, and redistribute the software, which is to say, you
>have to talk about your and others' freedom.
>
>The key concept is software freedom.
>
>--
> Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
> http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
> http://www.teak.cc bob@gnu.org
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