What's so important about the ethics of free software?

[David Gerard]

On 19 December 2016 at 21:12, Charles Cossé <ccosse at gmail.com> wrote:

> But it's been interesting to debate this ethics business, and I do prefer your personal position in the last paragraph of your previous post, which sounds much less rigid and more inclusive.  And I'm essentially asking whether it wouldn't be better if FSF(E) doctrines were more like the personal opinion you offered.


Historically, this is precisely why the OSI first formed in 1998, i.e.
they liked the engineering methodology, but they felt that the fact
that the Free Software Foundation was literally founded for purposes
of social justice wasn't very saleable to the business world.

All of these is a pretty well-worn argument, and ethics in software
design remains a current topic today, e.g. https://neveragain.tech - I
would not expect them to stop at any point.


- d.