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OpenSUSE adopts a new code of conduct

OpenSUSE adopts a new code of conduct

Posted Apr 2, 2022 6:30 UTC (Sat) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325)
In reply to: OpenSUSE adopts a new code of conduct by milesrout
Parent article: OpenSUSE adopts a new code of conduct

The GPL's preamble contains several explicitly political statements, such as the following:

> The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to make sure it remains free software for all its users. [...]
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> [...]
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> Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of protecting users' freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users.
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> Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. States should not allow patents to restrict development and use of software on general-purpose computers, but in those that do, we wish to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could make it effectively proprietary. To prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free.

Use of terms like "freedom," "abuse," "unacceptable," "threatened," etc. all connote policy arguments, not a dispassionate description of the relevant law or the license's text.


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