Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[James Lu]

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Some distributions of Emacs, such as Spacemacs, replace Emacs' splash
screen with one that heeds no mention to free software. (Spacemacs includes
a logo of Spacemacs, a bunch of menu items, and a changelog.)

In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux controversy,
where a variant of GNU software was called something else and disassociated
from free software, I propose we exercise section 7.4 of GPLv3 to require
"require preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author
attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices displayed
by works containing it"

"You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive
it, in any medium, **provided that you conspicuously and appropriately
publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice**; keep intact all
notices stating that this License and any non-permissive term"

"The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is released under
this License and any conditions added under section 7."

Most users do not go into the settings of an application to read licenses.
I would not consider that sort of attribution "prominent" and "conspicuous"
as the GPL requires.

This also nudges users of alternate distributions to read about free
software, instead of using it oblivious. Just having more people consider
the idea of free software is good for our movement.

If the GPL is not able to require a "This program is free software..."
style notice, a "(C) Free Software Foundation 2021, under the GNU GPLv3
<link to the GPL>" should be manageable.

Furthermore, we should require preservation of the "author attribution" of
"About GNU" in the menu.

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Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: James Lu <jamtlu@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2021 01:04:31 -0500
> Cc: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> 
> In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux controversy, where a variant of GNU software
> was called something else and disassociated from free software, I propose we exercise section 7.4 of
> GPLv3 to require "require preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author attributions in that
> material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices displayed by works containing it"

Thanks for letting us know, but please take this discussion elsewhere,
either emacs-tangents@gnu.org or even gnu-misc-discuss.  This issue is
unrelated to the Emacs development, and will unnecessarily increase
the noise level on this list, which is dedicated to development of the
GNU Emacs project.

I urge anyone who wants to respond to please do it elsewhere.

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Jean Louis]

* James Lu <jamtlu@gmail.com> [2021-02-13 08:13]:
> Some distributions of Emacs, such as Spacemacs, replace Emacs' splash
> screen with one that heeds no mention to free software. (Spacemacs includes
> a logo of Spacemacs, a bunch of menu items, and a changelog.)
> 
> In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux controversy,
> where a variant of GNU software was called something else and disassociated
> from free software, I propose we exercise section 7.4 of GPLv3 to require
> "require preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author
> attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices displayed
> by works containing it"

That is right. Is the bug reported to Spacemacs? What is the reaction?

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 11.02.2021 08:04, James Lu wrote:
> "You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you 
> receive it, in any medium, **provided that you conspicuously and 
> appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice**; 
> keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive 
> term"

Spacemacs and similar "distributions" actually don't redistribute Emacs 
itself. They're just collections of extensions together with 
instructions for installing them.

So I don't think this condition can apply, legally speaking.

(IANAL, though.)

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Daniele Nicolodi]

On 11/02/2021 07:04, James Lu wrote:
> In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux
> controversy, where a variant of GNU software was called something else
> and disassociated from free software,
To what do you refer exactly here? I don't recall anything like this
ever happening, but your terse description may not help my memory.

Thank you.

Cheers,
Dan

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ 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. ]]]

  > > In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux
  > > controversy, where a variant of GNU software was called something else
  > > and disassociated from free software,
  > To what do you refer exactly here? I don't recall anything like this
  > ever happening, but your terse description may not help my memory.

I think Lu was referring to the widespread misnomer of "Linux system"
when referring to a variant of the GNU system which has Linux as the
kernel.  See https://gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html and
https://gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[James Lu]

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I personally became a free software activist through one of these "This
program is free software, see gnu.org..." notices, so I think it's very
important we preserve these: to spread the good word of free software,
which is what Emacs was made to do.

On Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 12:19 AM Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

> [[[ 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. ]]]
>
>   > > In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux
>   > > controversy, where a variant of GNU software was called something
> else
>   > > and disassociated from free software,
>   > To what do you refer exactly here? I don't recall anything like this
>   > ever happening, but your terse description may not help my memory.
>
> I think Lu was referring to the widespread misnomer of "Linux system"
> when referring to a variant of the GNU system which has Linux as the
> kernel.  See https://gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html and
> https://gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.
>
>
> --
> Dr Richard Stallman
> Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
> Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
> Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
>
>
>
>

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Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Jose E. Marchesi]

> I personally became a free software activist through one of these "This
> program is free software, see gnu.org..." notices, so I think it's very
> important we preserve these: to spread the good word of free software,
> which is what Emacs was made to do.

FWIW I also learned about free software back in the nineties after
reading "Debian GNU/Linux" in the motd in a Debian Hamm and thinking
"what the hell is this GNU thing".

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Daniele Nicolodi]

On 16/02/2021 06:19, Richard Stallman wrote:
> [[[ 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. ]]]
> 
>   > > In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux
>   > > controversy, where a variant of GNU software was called something else
>   > > and disassociated from free software,
>   > To what do you refer exactly here? I don't recall anything like this
>   > ever happening, but your terse description may not help my memory.
> 
> I think Lu was referring to the widespread misnomer of "Linux system"
> when referring to a variant of the GNU system which has Linux as the
> kernel.  See https://gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html and
> https://gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.

I am well aware of this, but it is a very long stretch to describe this
as Lu did, especially the "disassociated from free software" part. I am
sure that in your long years of activism you very well understood that
one important thing in perusing a cause is to frame it precisely and
correctly.

Cheers,
Dan

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ 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. ]]]

  > from free software, I propose we exercise section 7.4 of GPLv3 to require
  > "require preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author
  > attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices displayed
  > by works containing it"

We cannot alter GPLv3.  We could only make a new version, and the amount of
hassle that would involve is not worth considering for this.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Jean Louis]

* James Lu <jamtlu@gmail.com> [2021-02-13 00:12]:
> Some distributions of Emacs, such as Spacemacs, replace Emacs' splash
> screen with one that heeds no mention to free software. (Spacemacs includes
> a logo of Spacemacs, a bunch of menu items, and a changelog.)
> 
> In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux controversy,
> where a variant of GNU software was called something else and disassociated
> from free software, I propose we exercise section 7.4 of GPLv3 to require
> "require preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author
> attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices displayed
> by works containing it"

Maintainer and author of Spacemacs has understood your proposal and
have changed all files to include GPL3 as how it is specified in the
license, included LICENSE file in the distribution and is now changing
the splash screen to include copying conditions.

See: 
https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/pull/14552

 syl20bnr commented 3 hours ago

Should fix #14444

    Added the LICENSE file.
    Added GPLv3 terms explicitly to each elisp file
    Updated the years to 2021
    Cherry on the cake, added the GPLv3 logo to the README file:

And wishes to add button on the main screen pointing to copying
conditions.

I wish best for increasing Emacs user number through Spacemacs and We
hope for creation of more free software and better understanding with
help of Spacemacs developers!

Jean

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ 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. ]]]

Thanks for doing this.  We got the best result in a friendly way.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)

Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[James Lu]

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I am not sure this is best.

I would prefer "Freedom-respecting software" somewhere on the
home buffer, to attract people to the cause of free software.

On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 3:03 AM Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support> wrote:

> * James Lu <jamtlu@gmail.com> [2021-02-13 00:12]:
> > Some distributions of Emacs, such as Spacemacs, replace Emacs' splash
> > screen with one that heeds no mention to free software. (Spacemacs
> includes
> > a logo of Spacemacs, a bunch of menu items, and a changelog.)
> >
> > In order to avoid another fiasco of the sort of the GNU/Linux
> controversy,
> > where a variant of GNU software was called something else and
> disassociated
> > from free software, I propose we exercise section 7.4 of GPLv3 to require
> > "require preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author
> > attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices
> displayed
> > by works containing it"
>
> Maintainer and author of Spacemacs has understood your proposal and
> have changed all files to include GPL3 as how it is specified in the
> license, included LICENSE file in the distribution and is now changing
> the splash screen to include copying conditions.
>
> See:
> https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/pull/14552
>
>  syl20bnr commented 3 hours ago
>
> Should fix #14444
>
>     Added the LICENSE file.
>     Added GPLv3 terms explicitly to each elisp file
>     Updated the years to 2021
>     Cherry on the cake, added the GPLv3 logo to the README file:
>
> And wishes to add button on the main screen pointing to copying
> conditions.
>
> I wish best for increasing Emacs user number through Spacemacs and We
> hope for creation of more free software and better understanding with
> help of Spacemacs developers!
>
> Jean
>
>

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Re: Require "this program is free software .... " notice to be preserved on the splash screen

[Pankaj Jangid]

James Lu <jamtlu@gmail.com> writes:

> I am not sure this is best.
>
> I would prefer "Freedom-respecting software" somewhere on the
> home buffer, to attract people to the cause of free software.

I see that the maintainer (of Spacemacs) is taking this positively. Last
few comments suggest that they might include the text or something
similar.

-- 
Regards,
Pankaj Jangid