It’s time for the community to take charge of its brand

There are a couple of “beginner’s mistakes” when thinking about Free Software in general and its commercial application, in particular. One is to believe there was a substantial difference in the software referred to by the terms “Free Software” and “Open Source.” There isn’t. As far as the actual software is concerned, both [...]

June 4th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Category: Free Software Business, FSFE, FTF | 19 comments

Debian: GNU FDL without invariant sections is Free

Ever since it was first released there was a very controversial discussion about the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) by some people of the Debian Project. The escalation did not end before some people repeatedly asked to remove all DFSG licensed documentation from Debian, a step that would leave Debian rather poor in documentation and [...]

March 12th, 2006 | Tags: , , | Category: FSFE, FTF | Leave a comment

Question: illegal copies of proprietary software — good or bad?

Someone asked by email whether I considered illegal copies of proprietary software a good or bad idea. Apparently someone else had argued that since the FSFs say that software must be free to copy, we should also copy proprietary software; even if we have no permission to do so. After writing the reply, it occured [...]

January 21st, 2006 | Tags: , | Category: Uncategorized | 3 comments