Subject: Re: [lojban] New to lojban, any suggestions?

From: "Robert J. Chassell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 19:52:39 +0000 (UTC)

> He has a pencil ...
> 
> He wants to sharpen it so it writes better --
> Damn, he is a cultist snob for wanting to do that.
> (Illegal to modify.)
> 
> He wants to sell it --
> Damn, he is a cultist snob for wanting to do that.
> (Illegal to sell.)
> 
> He wants to give it to a friend --
> Damn, he is a cultist snob for wanting to do that.
> (Illegal to give away.)
> 
> He wants a choice of whom he buys pencils from --
> Damn, he is a cultist snob for wanting to do that.
> (No choice of vendors.)
> 
> He wants to break the pencil --
> Damn, he is a cultist snob for wanting to do that.
> (Again, illegal to modify.)
> 
> He wants the freedom to all these things with his software.
> 
> As another person said, he is `un-American' ....
> 

Cute analogy. Not a good one, but cute. A man has a bought a book
it took its author 20 years to write. He wants to change a few
things in it...

Well, if he wants you to change a few things in it, he should choose a
license that permits you to do that. If, on the contrary, he does not
want you to change things, he should choose a different license.

I am here talking about software. Many developers, like cooks with
their recipes, like having their technology improved. So they choose
a license that permits you to make improvements (and which obligates
you, if you publish your work, to permit the original writer to use
those improvements to his own work.)

If you do not want others to fix bugs or make improvements to your
work, choose a different license.

I picked the pencil analogy because it is close: when you buy a
pencil, you come to own it. You have the legal right to sharpen it,
sell it, give it away, or break it. So long as you don't hurt others
with it, by stabbing them, for example, you can do what you want with
your property. You have a certain freedom.

You can do what you want with some kinds of software, too. What you
may do depends on the legal and practical restrictions or lack
thereof, imposed on the software package. You called me `a cultist
snob' for wanting to do what I like with my own property. Others have
called me `un-American' for the same desire for freedom. Well, it is
not snobbish or un-American to want freedom, and to fight for it. It
is basic.

-- 
Robert J. Chassell [email-masked]
Rattlesnake Enterprises http://www.rattlesnake.com