Re: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

Posted Sep 25, 2006 17:53 UTC (Mon) by krishna (guest, #24080)
In reply to: Re: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3 by mingo
Parent article: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

Is DRM evil? Yes and no ...

Does DRM have the ability to prevent you, as a consumer of the software, from examining, modifying, auditing (to your satisfaction), and improving the product you are accessing? Is that a restriction of your freedom?

The GPLs and the motivations behind them are less about good and evil and more about freedom -- although freedom is cast in a very positive light in the license. Everyone will argue that the freedom itself is good/bad/evil/ugly (e.g., to bare skin to various degrees in public, or to bear arms), consistent with one's own cultural/religious/moral convictions.

But I believe the GPL v2 and v3 are both more about preserving specific developer and consumer freedoms than value judgements, and that it comes down to deciding genuinely where those freedoms fall in the priorities of FL/OSS.