Moray Allan writes:
> On Mon, 2002-08-26 at 14:40, Russell Nelson wrote:
> > The people on debian-legal are morons. RMS has copyrighted the GPL
> > and they don't complain about that. RMS has coyprighted his various
> > screeds for libre distribution without modification. Okay, so if
> > their putative moral, spiritual and philosophical leader does it, then
> > why don't they allow others to do it? It's because they're morons.
> > No, I spare no criticism. If somebody is going to be gratuitiously
> > stupid in a public and obvious way, I'm going to call them out for it.
>
> (I'll try not to reply to your flaming in the same spirit.)
No, I don't mind, really. The people on debian-legal are being morons
about this. M-O-R-O-N-S. That spells "moron". Well, actually, it
spells "morons", but who's paying such close attention?
> Please specify why you don't think it's useful for fonts to be available
> under licences that would allow distribution of modified versions.
Same reason it's not useful for licenses, or political rants, or
songs, or clipart, or any other kind of expressive medium to be
legally modifiable. They're not software.
Look, if this isn't PAINFULLY obvious even to the most CASUAL
observer, try buying a famous work of art. Tell the seller that you
want the freedom to modify the piece of art. See if they still want
to sell it to you. Okay, so that's an original. Now go to an artist
and try to negotiate the right to make a print where, again, you have
the freedom to doctor it in the printing process. IF the artist is
still willing, the price will go up. Now go, hat in hand, to an
artist, asking them for the right to reproduce their work for free.
Insist upon the right to modify it.
> But I haven't noticed debian-legal posters taking the bizarre
> 'whatever RMS does is good' position you allege.
Debian's philosophy matches RMS's 100% (except when they're being
morons). Haven't you ever noticed that Debian is the only Linux
distribution that calls itself the hideous "GNU/Linux".
See, this is what happens whenever you get involved in Debian:
political arguments. Debian is a waste of time. Don't touch it. The
software is fine, but the politics that come with it are completely
intractable.
I've got work to do. I'm outta here.
-- -russ nelson http://russnelson.com | Crynwr sells support for free software | PGPok | businesses persuade 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315 268 1925 voice | governments coerce Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX |Received on Mon Aug 26 19:13:33 2002
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