Ownership in Software

Frank Heckenbach frank at g-n-u.de
Thu Apr 22 04:09:11 UTC 2004


Axel Schulz wrote:

> You are free to create software and you are free to share the
> source code but if you force someone to give away his work or
> doesn't allow him to do with it what he wants to do you violoate
> his rights and freedoms.

Yes, and that's exactly what Stallman advocates. E.g., he criticized
another license for requiring that each derived work must be
distributed or published.

If you write something for your own use, there should be no
obligations. But as soon as you give the work to someone else, every
use of your power affects others' freedoms as well, so any arguments
based on "absolute freedom" fail at this point, and you have to
weigh the freedoms of both parties against each other.

Frank

-- 
Frank Heckenbach, frank at g-n-u.de
http://fjf.gnu.de/
GnuPG and PGP keys: http://fjf.gnu.de/plan (7977168E)



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