We don't need to defend our freedom any more?

We don't need to defend our freedom any more?

Posted Jul 4, 2005 3:22 UTC (Mon) by bignose (subscriber, #40)
Parent article: ESR: 'We Don't Need the GPL Anymore' (O'ReillyNet)

> I've actually been making the argument that the GPL is rationally justified only if open source is an inferior system of production since 1998.

That may be because you misread the intentions of the GPL: to give freedom to software users and ensure they can keep it. Until there's no threat that any users of software could have their freedoms unfairly restricted, I don't see how any tool that works toward that goal can be obsolete.

The GPL's usefulness is to the users of the software, and only incidentally to the software author. It so happens that software authors often like to please their users, so licensing software under user-friendly terms has a benefit to the author as well. That benefit, though, is *not* the purpose of the GPL -- protecting the users' freedom is its purpose.

Regardless of whether or not free software is technically superior, it is *always* superior in terms of users' freedom. So long as the GPL works toward this end, it's entirely relevant.

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