free software is political [LWN.net]

free software is political

Posted Nov 4, 2008 10:53 UTC (Tue) by wingo (subscriber, #26929)
In reply to: Free Documentation License 1.3 by BrucePerens
Parent article: Free Documentation License 1.3

I don't know where I stand on the GFDL; it's a bit irritating sometimes. I do have works published under it, and under BY-SA.

But what prompts me to respond is the assertion that free software is not inherently political. I would disagree. Part of what motivates me to do this is to carve out a larger space for freedom in the world -- certainly a political intention. If the fruits of such labor are not political, I don't know what is.

Finally, you seem to use the word "political" as a pejorative; not sure if that was intentional, but I think this is mistaken. Free Software is not neutral, it has goals and direction, both in the minds of contributors and operationally (an expanding universe of freedom). There's nothing negative about this political orientation.

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free software is political

Posted Nov 4, 2008 15:59 UTC (Tue) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link]

Well, I'm political too. But I did not burden the Debian distribution with mandatory rants that have to be distributed to all users, for example, because it wouldn't have been practical if I had. What we are really talking about with the GFDL is a mandiatory political advertisement. I have no problem with the content, indeed I approve of the content. It just belongs somewhere else.