[ date ] 2002/07/09 | Tuesday | 03:30 PM [ author ] Bernhard Reiter bernhard@intevation.de
It is told that RMS once said: "Your freedom to swing your arm stops at my nose."
I agree with this statement. However, the concept I am trying to bring to people's attention is one level below this. Ask yourself:
What makes it possible for you to stop at his nose?
Why do you refuse to punch a person?
The answer to this -- if it is a 'positive' one -- is the emotional foundation of freedom. Without love and respect for your fellow man and woman, there will never be any freedom regardless of how many laws are repealed/passed. If people cannot find kindness in their hearts, we will forever be fighting wars regardless of how many treaties are signed.
Like I said in my comments at http://www.advogato.org/article/512.html I think that Free Software is just a small part of the equation. However, being a programmer, I wanted to help other programmers try to make the connection between love and freedom in terms that they could understand, and that's why I used the GPL for my examples.
I feel like I failed, though. People pulled out their legal microscopes when I wanted them to be using telescopes to look far into the hypothetical future.
The section about the benefits of the GNU license and gcc is too monocausal to be a solid argumentation. It is more like an illustration.
I agree. "An illustration" is a good way of describing my essay.
Peace, beppu