RE: Promise SATA driver GPL'd

From: David Schwartz (davids@webmaster.com)
Date: Wed Jul 23 2003 - 19:21:19 EST


> Freedom comes from keeping all of it free.

        All code released publically is free. The more code you release, the more
freedom.

        You seem to think that how much freedom you have is based upon what
percentage of code is free as opposed to how much free code there is. Nobody
can reduce the amount of free code, so nobody can reduce your freedom.

        No matter how much code I write for which I don't give you the source, the
amount of code for which you do have the source is not reduced. The more
free code there is, the freer you are. The only thing that threatens your
freedom is if someone makes free code unfree. How do they do that?

        If I add something and don't make it free, that doesn't reduce your
freedom. It only fails to increase it.

> Litigation is a means to prevent the blanket theift of today.
> You cleary do not get it.

        The only thing a person can steal is what they themselves added. So no
theft takes any of your freedom away. You are still free, no matter how many
things that I produce I fail to give you.

> How do you plan to stop people from making changes to the kernel,
> packaging a binary kernel and selling it?

        Would I be any better off if they didn't make the changes in the first
place? How can someone not giving me access to something they produced make
me any less free than if those things didn't exist at all?

        Nobody can take your freedom away just by denying you something that they
produced.

        DS

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