> From: "Alfred M. Szmidt" <a...@gnu.org> > Cc: e...@gnu.org, bugs@gnu.support, arthur.mil...@live.com, > r...@gnu.org, u...@gentoo.org, emacs-tangents@gnu.org > Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2021 16:07:13 -0500 > > > You are exagerating. Nobody is saying don't do research, I'm quite > > sure you are capable of finding that information on your own. But it > > is a different thing for GNU do provide that information for you. > > But GNU software shouldn't help me in research? > > In the research of non-free software, obviously no.
And that is a serious problem, because GNU maintainers need to do that quite frequently, as part of their job they do for GNU. And other software users and professionals are likely to do that as well, in order to study software algorithms and implementations. Let me remind you that (AFAIK) one of the main reasons for starting GNU was the inability to share ideas about software design and implementation, due to commercial entities' enforcement of a system where showing the code was prohibited. It would be ironic if the GNU project prevented its followers from exercising the same freedom, by denying us the information about where to find that source code to begin with.
