Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <[email protected]> wrote: > Not a good idea, see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party.html
There are some major differences between what I'm doing (and have been doing all my life) and the stereotypical "pirate": * The stereotypical "pirate" is content with the mediocre quality and the closed/proprietary/disempowering nature of their ware (typically weenie dose OS distributions and applications for that OS) even when superior free alternatives do exist and are readily available. * The stereotypical "pirate" is content with unmodifiable binary-only ware. He would have no idea what to do with a source code package if one landed in his lap. * The stereotypical "pirate" does not seek to improve the ware and is generally not involved in major creative work of his own. In contrast, my work with forcibly-liberated proprietary sw/fw happens only if and when I have some source code to start with. (That source may contain blobs: I don't like them obviously, but the critically important point is that I never act as the bad guy who withholds the source, if I don't have that source myself, it isn't my fault.) And I don't just keep the ware for its own sake, I start Free Software / OSHW projects with very significant contributions of my own which just happen to include liberated ex-proprietary code, usually in full source form. These differences between what I do and the conventional stereotype of SW "piracy" should address the criticism made by RMS. If the Swedish Pirate Party were to succeed in their campaign as-is, it would simply make what I do fully legal, in Sweden. Whoo-hoo! It would NOT hurt Free Software, because then my full-source, everyone invited to participate projects which happen to contain liberated ex-proprietary code would *BE* Free Software in the perfectly legal sense. MS _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
