From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li>
Cc: mats.lidell@cag.se, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Some hard numbers on licenses used by elisp packages
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2017 13:16:55 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1db8sh-0006QD-Ev@fencepost.gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <874ltwbzpl.fsf@bernoul.li> (message from Jonas Bernoulli on Fri, 28 Jul 2017 12:52:38 +0200)
[[[ 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. ]]]
I wrote
> Under the malign influence of GitHub, developers often don't bother to
> put on a license.
You responded
> Github actively encourages users to specify the license.
which appears to disagree. However,there is no conflict between what
you report and what I wrote. They appear to conflict, but they really
don't conflict.
You report what GitHub says NOW. That is a change Github made in
response to the failing grade we gave GitHub two years ago in
https://gnu.org/software/repo-criteria.html.
The change was an improvement, but it doesn't erase the past.
GitHub operated for many years presenting "no license" as a fine
alternative.
Thus, I stand by what I wrote. During those years, GitHub spread a
malign influence against putting on a license. The effects continue
to spread among the users.
Should we forgive GitHub for the past harm? That depends on how hard
GitHub works now to correct the past harm.
I don't remember the specifics of what GitHub says now -- I saw it
over a year ago. ISTR it was not a strong and firm policy, and I was
disappointed. It was less bad, but not very good. You described it
with the word "encourages", which also suggests it is not strong and
firm.
A weak policy will not suffice, in practice, to undo the past harm.
A strong and firm policy would mean telling all the users: "Warning:
if a source file has no license, you are not authorized to copy it or
redistribute it, let alone change it." And then saying, "Upload of
software source files not carrying a clear license is not permitted --
don't do it here!"
If GitHub did that, the FSF would welcome its efforts to undo the past
harm, and would no longer blame present-day GitHub for it. (Our other
criticisms of GitHub, on other issues, would remain active.)
--
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.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-07-28 17:16 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 53+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-07-10 14:29 Some hard numbers on licenses used by elisp packages Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-12 12:49 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-13 12:23 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-14 19:44 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-15 19:38 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-16 1:55 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-16 2:20 ` Jean-Christophe Helary
2017-07-16 15:41 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-16 17:37 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-16 22:17 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-17 12:00 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-17 12:00 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-17 12:00 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-17 21:23 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-18 14:16 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-23 22:14 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-27 22:50 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-28 17:16 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-29 12:19 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-29 19:09 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-29 19:54 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-29 22:49 ` Ivan Andrus
2017-07-31 0:46 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-31 17:48 ` Achim Gratz
2017-08-08 1:02 ` Ivan Andrus
2017-07-31 0:51 ` Richard Stallman
2017-08-01 21:46 ` Mats Lidell
2017-08-02 1:54 ` Stefan Monnier
2017-08-03 19:42 ` Richard Stallman
2017-08-03 19:58 ` Stefan Monnier
2017-07-28 10:52 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-28 17:16 ` Richard Stallman [this message]
2017-07-28 17:47 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-28 17:16 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-29 13:48 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-29 19:10 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-29 19:10 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-28 20:36 ` Karl Fogel
2017-07-29 19:07 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-31 0:49 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-17 11:59 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-28 11:17 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-29 14:54 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-29 19:09 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-29 19:06 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-29 19:06 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-29 20:07 ` Mats Lidell
2017-07-30 6:28 ` Jean-Christophe Helary
2017-07-31 16:03 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-07-31 17:03 ` Jonas Bernoulli
2017-08-03 9:35 ` Mats Lidell
2017-08-03 19:50 ` Richard Stallman
2017-07-13 12:23 ` Richard Stallman
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