From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Some hard numbers on licenses used by elisp packages Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:00:34 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87shi4z7ps.fsf@bernoul.li> <87zic9zuof.fsf@bernoul.li> <877ezaajme.fsf@bernoul.li> <87shhw2xuv.fsf@bernoul.li> <87a844cmgx.fsf@ernst> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1500293105 12995 195.159.176.226 (17 Jul 2017 12:05:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2017 12:05:05 +0000 (UTC) Cc: jonas@bernoul.li, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Mats Lidell Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jul 17 14:05:00 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dX4ln-00036Z-EG for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 17 Jul 2017 14:04:59 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:49842 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dX4lt-00078n-1W for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:05:05 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:37970) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dX4hl-0004gA-Ce for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:00:50 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dX4hf-0002ro-Gt for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:00:49 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:60860) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dX4hX-0002cC-5C; Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:00:35 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1dX4hW-0001x5-4I; Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:00:34 -0400 In-reply-to: <87a844cmgx.fsf@ernst> (message from Mats Lidell on Sun, 16 Jul 2017 19:37:02 +0200) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:216771 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > What is the motivating factor for the authors who have not assigned any > license to their package? That open source software should be covered bye one > clearly stated open source license? I suspect part of the cause is the influence of the "open source" idea. In the free software movement, the point a free program is to give users freedom. The license is what gives users that freedom, so the choice of the best free license is a very important question, and applying the license properly is crucial. The "open source" idea tends to make "good code" the highest value, and treats "giving users freedom" as secondary. While the original leaders of open source treated licenses as important, the ideas have evolved over the last ten years to dismiss licenses as a minor detail. Under the malign influence of GitHub, developers often don't bother to put on a license. This means the program is not free software (nor open source either). https://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html explains the difference between free software and open source, especially at the level of ideas. This is part of why, in the GNU Project, we never use the term "open source" to describe what we are doing. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.