[GTALUG] "'Opens source' is not 'free software'"

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 05:44:51AM +0200, ac via talk wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:09:55 -0400 (EDT)
> "D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk" <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> > I found this article interesting and useful
> > <https://opensource.com/business/16/11/open-source-not-free-software>
> > This guy disagrees:
> > <https://meshedinsights.com/2017/06/07/free-vs-open/>
> 
> imho, it is semantics / point of view..
> 
> my own pov (ymmv): Truly free and truly open is everything BSD licensed
> (including my own BSD released code/projects/software) my GPL etc
> licensed software is open, and free if you are only a user, but not so
> much free if you are a dev, etc. :)

The goal of GPL is the freedom of the source code, and hence the freedom
of future users of the source code.  It is not the freedom of someone
to decide to deny others the same freedom, unlike the BSD license where
the receiver is the one that is most free to do what they want.  So yes
the GPL gives each user less freedom in the interest of giving all users
that same level of freedom in using the code.

Different goal.

-- 
Len Sorensen