DeVault: Reforming the free software message

This reading must be founded upon a misunderstanding of the relationship between Free software and "open source". When an "open source" person advocates in favour of the four freedoms, s/he is campaigning for Free software; this follows the superset-subset relationship of how there's no Free software that isn't also "open source".

It's also the case that between the two concepts, Free software was first and "open source" came after as the copycat business-friendly watered-down[0] paper-tiger movement which, due to its recasting some of the four freedoms to better suit the corporate exploiter, landed certain people their dot-com megabucks back in the day. This historical order further reinforces the asymmetry of advocacy from another direction: in the concept of "open source" the four freedoms are disregarded.

[0] in particular, terms that forbid uses guaranteed by the four freedoms -- such as those of the original Sun community license, and the home-grown stepping-stone licenses of other american companies -- were accepted as valid "open source" licensing.