Re: [LAU] ffmpeg or libav

On 01/13/2013 10:44 AM, drew Roberts wrote:
>> there would also be no way to require anyone to honor my intentions that my
>> source code be made available to anyone that my software is distributed to.
>
> This bit is true. But without the corresponding ability to enforce
> non-distribution of binaries how big of an issue would this be?

To free software advocates, it'd be an enormous issue. The right to
redistribute is only freedom #2. Freedom #1 is the right to inspect and
change a program. Many of us could afford to do everything with proprietary
software, but choose free software because we want control over what's
running on our hardware whenever practical. (Or, if you're RMS, even if
it's impractical.) "Free software" and "freeware" are two very different
things.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Of course, the absence of copyright law would not make EULAs go away;
proprietary software makers would just make you sign a contract (which,
depending on which legal venue you're in, can sometimes be effected by
merely opening a box or clicking a link) saying you won't redistribute it
before they distribute the software to you. Advocates of copyleft could do
the same thing, though we'd lose a lot of our advantages over proprietary
software in that case since you couldn't just throw ISOs everywhere.

Rob

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Received on Sun Jan 13 20:15:04 2013