> A. Try to make GNOME better in practical ways too. > > B. Teach him to appreciate freedom, so he will recognize that the > proprietary programs are inherently inferior ethically.
however, point B is pretty much like saying that instead of coming up with Copyleft you should have run for congress and change the whole Intelectual Property policy for the US. I wouldn't want to change the "whole intellectual property policy". "Intellectual property" includes a dozen different laws; most of them have nothing to do with making software proprietary, so why would the free software movement want to change them? Any time you use the term "intellectual property" you are making a very broad statement, probably not wise, so it is better not to use that term. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html for explanation. Since copyleft is a way of using copyright law, perhaps "copyright law" is what you meant to say. With that change, your statement would begin to be coherent. However, I think it is not correct. To change copyright law for software, or to change the DMCA which imposes censorship on free software, would only be possible after building a large and strong free software movement. In other words, changing laws cannot be the first step, because first we need to convince a large number of people to value and demand freedom. This reinforces my point that we need to get to work on teaching people to value and demand freedom. Fortunately, that is something we can do now, and we have been doing it for 26 years. _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list