From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Copyright/Distribution questions (Emacs/Orgmode) Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:49:53 +0900 Message-ID: <87zjxf83pa.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <87ober717z.fsf@gmail.com> <87a9pgayzy.fsf@gmail.com> <87bo9wyr74.fsf@bzg.ath.cx> <87y5d0m3l3.fsf@gmail.com> <515BE920.1000503@online.de> <87obdwvw6v.fsf@bzg.ath.cx> <515BF509.2040706@online.de> <87k3ok9bq7.fsf@zigzag.favinet> <87r4ir4r19.fsf@gmail.com> <83bo9vir0k.fsf@gnu.org> <87hajn4muw.fsf@gmail.com> <83zjxfh9ik.fsf@gnu.org> <87a9pf4m4j.fsf@gmail.com> <83y5czh8qs.fsf@gnu.org> <8762034la9.fsf@gmail.com> <83wqsjh7tl.fsf@gnu.org> <87y5cz35r2.fsf@gmail.com> <83txnnh770.fsf@gnu.org> <87txnn350a.fsf@gmail.com> <83ppybh61i.fsf@gnu.org> <87mwtf33wr.fsf@gmail.com> <83obdvh5cm.fsf@gnu.org> <8738v7a2qm.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <83fvz7h34b.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1365041047 28125 80.91.229.3 (4 Apr 2013 02:04:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 02:04:07 +0000 (UTC) Cc: kjambunathan@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Apr 04 04:04:34 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UNZXU-0003pC-RI for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:04:32 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59879 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNZX5-0008L0-Tj for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:04:07 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:56289) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNZX2-0008Jq-H2 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:04:05 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNZX0-0003SZ-UU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:04:04 -0400 Original-Received: from mgmt2.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.224]:57989) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UNZJQ-0007my-Ud; Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:50:01 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mgmt2.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71880970208; Thu, 4 Apr 2013 10:49:53 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 372271A3DCA; Thu, 4 Apr 2013 10:49:53 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <83fvz7h34b.fsf@gnu.org> X-Mailer: VM undefined under 21.5 (beta32) "habanero" b0d40183ac79 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 130.158.97.224 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:158637 Archived-At: Eli Zaretskii writes: > > From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" > > Cc: Jambunathan K , > > emacs-devel@gnu.org > > Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2013 03:27:45 +0900 > > > > Eli Zaretskii writes: > > > > > > Again, which of the 4 freedoms and what is the restriction > > > > that you are talking about. > > > > > > All of them. I already said why, go and re-read if you still don't > > > understand. > > > > No, Eli, it's you that don't understand. Software is free software if > > and only if it is distributed under a free software license, by the > > definition of "free software license".[1] Jambunathan's code is > > distributed under the GPL, and that is that. > > You should read his messages more closely. His messages are a red herring. To determine whether the software is free, all one needs to read is -- the license. There are many reasons why a given project doesn't use code that is free. The code might be under a free but incompatible license, and the project is unwilling to switch licenses. The code might be redundant. In Emacs, there are *self-imposed* non-technical restrictions on adding software over and above software freedom. But those are not restrictions on freedom, even if a developer chooses to aim at them to confound Emacs, *because* they are self-imposed. That doesn't make Jambunathan's behavior nice, and I generally agree with your criticism of Jambunathan's means to his ends, including the conclusion that they may harm the growth of software freedom in the end. But lack of software freedom of the software itself as distributed is not a justification for that criticism.