K5: 'Is Richard Stallman's Fight For "GNU/Linux" Suicide?'

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Sun, May 20, 2001 at 12:36:06PM +0200, Stefan Meretz wrote:

> Ok, Free Software is compatible. But my point is: What comes first? 
> You want to tell me, that commercialization and free software is identical?

b) Software can be proprietory or free.
c) Work can be done volenteeringly or for money.

Two different questions on orthogonal planes.

> My position is: freedom comes first, and I think, this _is_ the position
> of FSF as I can read it on gnu.org.

First of all the FSF does not mix the two levels.
So there is no ranking order between answers of both levels,
we are talking about b):

And the answer is: Software must have the necessary freedoms.

The FSF document quoted:
> >>
> Strictly speaking, ``selling'' means trading goods for money. Selling a
> copy of a free program is legitimate, and we encourage it.
> <<

I already gave you these quotes before to show you that the FSF encourages
you to answer the c) question for yourself.

> > Also it should be clear by now that being against commercialization is
> > being against freedom in the sense of Free Software.
> 
> I completely disagree, but there is no need to fit our positions. If I
> understand Werner Koch right: It is not a topic of FSF(E).

We will always tell people that they do have the freedom to try and
make as much money as they want with Free Software.
We also will tell them that we will fight for the freedom to work
on Free Software without money involved. 
The FSFE will not answer the c) question for you.

	Bernhard
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