From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stephen Compall Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: (emacs)Glossary::. Definition of "copyleft" excludes many free software supporters Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 17:33:42 -0600 Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <3DEBEDD6.7070406@sigecom.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1038871635 3322 80.91.224.249 (2 Dec 2002 23:27:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 23:27:15 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18Izxy-0000qX-00 for ; Tue, 03 Dec 2002 00:27:06 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18Izzr-0006nr-00; Mon, 02 Dec 2002 18:29:03 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18IzzH-0006Le-00 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 02 Dec 2002 18:28:27 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18IzzE-0006LM-00 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 02 Dec 2002 18:28:27 -0500 Original-Received: from [192.195.225.6] (helo=antares.evansville.edu) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18IzzE-0006CK-00 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 02 Dec 2002 18:28:24 -0500 Original-Received: from sigecom.net (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by antares.evansville.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2E5573983E for ; Mon, 2 Dec 2002 17:33:43 -0600 (CST) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20021128 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Original-To: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:3992 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.bugs:3992 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Bug Report for GNU Emacs Manual, 15th ed. (for GNU Emacs 21.2) * Summary Definition of "copyleft" in the glossary is a confusing pun and excludes many free software supporters * Symptoms The definition appears as follows in Info: Copyleft A copyleft is a notice giving the public legal permission to redistribute a program or other work of art. Copylefts are used by left-wing programmers to promote freedom and cooperation, just as copyrights are used by right-wing programmers to gain power over other people. This has some side-effects for some users (if not all). ** Alienation/insult of free software supporter Usually only occurs if user is a liberal (as in American conservative or libertarian). ** Logic exception at stereotyping Experienced by those who don't paint everybody with one single political color or the other. * Reproduce Two methods here: ** Info node (emacs)Glossary Run an incremental search for "Copyleft". ** Paper manual, section Glossary Turn to page 537, and find the definition for "Copyleft". * Comments While it may be a humorous pun to tie copy_left_ to _left_-wing, and copy_right_ (implying proprietary status in this usage) to _right_-wing, I hardly think it is accurate. As a right-winger, I don't fit into the perfect mold this definition seems to create, as I'm sure the left-wingers reading this don't feel they fit into a perfect mold either. I believe in small government (least is best), laissez-faire, truly free trade (no barriers), and property rights (which do not include copyright, BTW) -- though not as "the highest moral principle", as RMS asserts in his comments to Roderick Long's `The Libertarian Case Against Intellectual Property Rights'. I am also pro-choice, against "homeland security" privacy violations, against "family values" legislation -- here I would say "just as you left-wingers are", but I'm not going to typecast like that. And, I find the current copyright situation -- including that for software -- highly unfavorable. For myself, and for others as well. Finally, I believe that most of the so-called "left-wing" principles (listed above) are more compatible with the basic tenets of libertarianism (or liberalism, or conservatism as they call it in the U.S.) are more compatible with the right-wing than the left-wing! Which is why I have chosen this "side". If you've made this connection in deference to the left=left, right=right, then I believe you've made the wrong kind of statement. Copyleft, if my reading of the history of the term is correct, is a play on the word "copyright": while not accurately opposing, as the "right" in "copyright" refers to a concept of rights (albeit inaccurate), not the direction, a humorous and catchy term nonetheless. Using the logic on which this depends, however, I could just as accurately say that since free software is about securing the _right_s of users to copy, modify, and distribute software, then it must be a _right_-wing principle, along with all principles dealing with _right_s. Please fix this. - -- Stephen Compall Also known as S11001001 DotGNU `Contributor' -- http://dotgnu.org Sometimes I think that perhaps one of the best things I could do with my life is: find a gigantic pile of proprietary software that was a trade secret, and start handing out copies on a street corner so it wouldn't be a trade secret any more, and perhaps that would be a much more efficient way for me to give people new free software than actually writing it myself; but everyone is too cowardly to even take it. -- RMS, Lecture at KTH (Sweden), 30 October 1986 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE96+vA2AceYinZ4EgRAnSsAKCOPtiDAJaMPjCvvyxuM6s9GxcAoACgiXw4 wJ+TTGazo5FCKT8PtT8S70s= =vHYo -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----