[Colchester] The fifth freedom

[Wayland Sothcott]

Jai Harrison wrote:
> -- I posted this message on the Ubuntu UK Mailing List but felt it
> would be appropriate here too --
>
> I have been thinking about this for a long time and contacted the FSF
> a while ago concerning how the GPL doesn't ensure my freedoms anymore.
> They directed me to the Affero General Public License and I have
> decided to license any of my work that I release under it to ensure it
> remains free.
>
> This is a big problem nowadays though. I'm using Google Apps for Your
> Domain which most likely uses code that was previously free. Google is
> one of the companies that makes a lot of money out of free software by
> making it proprietary in a sense that the GPL doesn't prevent. There's
> an interesting post on linux.com about this:
> http://www.linux.com/feature/140934
>
> What do you guys think about the theft of our freedoms that web
> applications are introducing and on the requirement of a fifth freedom
> to be introduced to protect free software from nasty corporations who
> choose to exploit it (e.g. Google).
>
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> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/colchester
>
>   
Hello Jai,
I think you are confusing free beer with liberty. As far as I am 
concerned I am at liberty to use GPL programs comercially. I can sell 
them to people and I can modify them. Even if I did not write them.
I have done this with IP-Cop, Debian, Open Office and many small 
applications. What I don't do is pretend that I wrote them and if I have 
made improvements then I feed these back to the user forums and 
contribute plenty in the way of support to orther users. In the case of 
programs like Spybot, I make occasional donations and encourage my users 
to. However I will charge my users when I clean up their computer using 
Spybot. You don't have to be a programmer to contribute to the Open 
Source, GPL and Free software programs on offer.

Linksys got their WRT54G router off to a head start by using Linux. 
However they were suprized when they were legaly bound to publish the 
source for others to use. Many groups have used the source to do their 
own improved versions of the code. dd-wrt is the one I use but if you 
love the command line then use OpenWRT which is very powerfull. I 
contribute to the forums and gave the dd-wrt people the occasional 
donation. I use dd-wrt commcerially. Linksys have learned that you can't 
adopt GPL code as your own, it always belongs to the original creator. 
We do have to stay vigelant to make sure the big companies are not 
stealing ownership. We want them to use GPL because it helps them make 
better products and helps us take those products and make them even better.

Microsoft have done well basically because they allowed their programs 
to be copied and allowed everyone to write for their operating systems. 
They can squeeze this a bit to create some money but if they squeeze the 
life out of the pirate and 3rd part program market then they kill their 
own products. Those programs that required dongles have not done as well 
commercially as those that technically allow free copying. Think of the 
original PlayStation Ve the Nintendo Game Cube (?), duplicating the 
games CDs for a PlayStation was far easier than duplicating games 
cartidges. What Linux and the GPL market does is make a virtue out of 
copying but not killing the possibility of charging money for the 
finished product. Granted that GPL is tipped firmly in favour of not 
paying for stuff but it's still massively comercial by virtue of being 
able to charge users for setting things up in the specific way they 
need. GPL is much better at meeting specific needs since you can get in 
and change the code. You might not do this yourself but you could pay 
the developer or find one which someone has already forked the code.

Are you in danger of becomming a Freetard? That means you think it's 
wrong to be charged money for something.

Regards,
Wayland.