----- Original Message -----
From: Philip S Tellis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Public domain Vs. Free
> Sometime Today, Manish Jethani assembled some asciibets to
say:
> >
> > PDS, on the other hand, allows for free modification and
re-use,
> > without any restrictions (no liscence). Now isn't that
complete
> > freedom? Shouldn't all s/w be PDS in that case (instead of
FS)?
>
> Unfortunately, you cannot enforce a licence except through the
licence
> itself - which is what the GPL does and the PDS does not.
You can! LAW! You don't need a liscence to be able to use the
air around me. Not even the GPL. You are free to use and modify
it in any way ( |:-) if it's killing me, I'll object, or I'll
just move away).
What I am trying to say is that s/w should be free from
liscences. All s/w should be public domain. Nobody should be
allowed to copyright (hence copyleft) s/w. Is air and water ever
copyright? No! I see s/w in the same light. What I mean is that
ANYone can take my code and do ANYthing with it. No one will be
able to build proprietary s/w on it, because prop. s/w will not
exist! No one will follow the copyright law, when it comes to
s/w. In fact, copyright law will not exist in that case. No
owners for s/w (in the _real_ sense).
This system should be enforced by the law. (In fact, it need not
be enforced, because it's very natural. The copyright and
liscencing system should _stop_ being enforced instead.)
The difference between GPLed s/w and public domain s/w is that
GPL _still_ restricts you from something (the something is a
good thing, but it's something after all!). Public domain s/w
does NOT restrict you from ANYTHING!
If religion and law were to say that all s/w is public domain,
then there wouldn't be a question of proprietary s/w. I think it
should be that way. But since it's not, the GPL fixes it. But
how long? (The world is getting worse! IT Bill!) The law should
require s/w to be free (not gratis, but free), and not any
liscences.
Anyway, not much of an issue, since the GPL does the job.
--
Manish Jethani
http://mjworld.hypermart.net/
linux: the choice of a GNU generation
([EMAIL PROTECTED] put this on Tshirts in '93)
To subscribe / unsubscribe goto the site www.ilug-bom.org ., click on the mailing list
button and fill the appropriate information
and submit. For any other queries contact the ML maintener
