Non-free software is divisive and harmful. [LWN.net]

Non-free software is divisive and harmful.

Posted Jun 15, 2006 12:13 UTC (Thu) by etwilson (guest, #8459)
In reply to: Non-free software is divisive and harmful. by bignose
Parent article: Google Earth for Linux

Google's not "betraying" anyone. They wrote the code, they get to pick the license to release it under. If you don't like it, don't use it. It's really that simple.

to post comments

Non-free software is divisive and harmful.

Posted Jun 15, 2006 23:41 UTC (Thu) by proski (guest, #104) [Link] (1 responses)

The point is, if your friend asks you to help him remove ads from Google Earth, what would you do?

Non-free software is divisive and harmful.

Posted Jun 16, 2006 1:52 UTC (Fri) by bignose (subscriber, #40) [Link]

> if your friend asks you to help him remove ads from Google Earth, what
> would you do?

If someone enters an agreement not to help me with respect to a piece of software, and then asks me for help with that same software? The answer would pretty clearly be "no, ask the other party to your exclusive agreement".

http://zgp.org/~dmarti/blosxom/freedom/help-for-nonfree.html

Actions have consequences. If you want help from people around you, don't accept terms that require you not to help people around you.