Re: [tlug] linux in Japanese schools

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On Sat, 6 Jan 2007, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

> I totally agree with that but I think current practice is to use 
> "フリーソフト" instead of "自由ソフト". Or did I miss the places where 
> "自由ソフト" is used intensively ?

Actually, maybe someone can explain this to me, because I've been
puzzling over it for years.

So with something like BSD-licensed software, when you get hold of it,
you can do what you like with it. You can change it, keep your changes
to yourself, and sell compiled versions for money, if that's what you
want to do. There are very few restrictions on your freedom to do what
you want with that code, beyond clause three the four-clause versions
of that license (which generally compell you to say that your product
includes code from wherever).

With GPL'd software, the situation seems to me exactly the opposite.
You have many more restrictions on what you can do with this software;
for example, you cannot change the source, keep your changes secret,
and sell your new version, as you can with the BSD license. However,
anybody who gets any version of a GPL'd program, under the license, is
entitled to the source code at no charge. The main effect of this seems
to be that it is highly unlikely you will ever have to pay money for a
piece of GPL'd software if you don't want to, even if it's a version
with substantial modifications that the developer would rather keep
proprietary.

Now, I (perhaps naively) interpret "free beer" as "you don't have to pay
money for it," and "free speech" as "you can do what you want." But it
seems to me that the GPL can be summarized as, "the software will always
be free of charge, and we place restrictions on the receivers to make
that so," and the BSD licence can be summarised as, "you can do what you
want with it, even charge people for variants." So wouldn't that mean
that the GPL is "free as in beer," and the BSD license is "free as in
speech"?

Why is it claimed that the GPL is "free as in speech" when it places
more restrictions on the freedom of the users of the software than the
BSD (or many other) open source licenses?

cjs
--
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974