en/computer/legal/freedomWEBlog -- Wouter's Eclectic Bloghttps://grep.be/blog//en/computer/legal/freedom/WEBlog -- Wouter's Eclectic Blogikiwiki2014-03-01T13:42:06Zsoftware freedom no longer an issue?https://grep.be/blog//en/computer/legal/freedom/comment_1881/Stefano Zacchiroli (zack@debian.org)2014-03-01T13:42:06Z2011-07-09T09:01:23Z
<p>You wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[FSF] care[s] about Software Freedom. And while that certainly was an issue thirty years ago, when the FSF was formed, it isn't so much anymore today</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I like the discussion on the double standard, I really do; but the above sounds quite odd to me. Saying that Software Freedom isn't so much any more an issue today is something I would love to be able to say, but that it's very far from reality or, at least, from the software reality I observe.</p>
<p>The software world is more and more dominated by non-free software, mostly running on computers which are away from the final users, in the so called "cloud". Several people use only that in their computing lives. Doing so, they are in much worse position than where we were when FSF was formed (as in the meantime you've even lost access to the binary).</p>
<p>I really wonder what is the basis for your claim above... Having reached a good availability of Free Software on desktops machines doesn't mean that the Free Software battle has been won, <em>especially</em> if in the meantime computations are massively moving away from desktops.</p>
Re: software freedom no longer an issue?https://grep.be/blog//en/computer/legal/freedom/comment_1882/wouter2014-03-01T13:42:06Z2011-07-09T09:43:31Z
<p>I didn't say it was no longer an issue; I said "it is not so much an issue anymore today". The difference is in "not so much". Sure, there are still battles to be faught; but today's world isn't the world it was 30 years ago.</p>
<p>When the FSF was formed, people thought Richard was crazy. He was fighting an uphill battle in trying to come up with a completely free computing environment. Today, there <em>are</em> completely free computing environments, and they <em>can</em> be used. It has been shown that this is viable, too, and free software is here to stay.</p>
<p>Yes, there are still problems, and no, I'm not saying we should stop fighting the battles that need to be fought. But it's easier to fight them today than it was 30 years ago.</p>
""Therehttps://grep.be/blog//en/computer/legal/freedom/comment_1884/C2014-03-01T13:42:06Z2011-07-09T20:43:56Z
These are fighting words. But I think the reality is less political and a bit more subtle, akin to what happened to Newton's physics when Einstein and quantum mechanics came long. Newton didn't become obsolete, when Einstein formulated his theories of relativity. Rather, Einstein and quantum physics extended the physics of Isaac Newton. Or, another way of looking at it, relativity and quantum physics restricted Newtonian physics to a sort of middle world between the very small on one hand and the very big and very fast.
Re: software freedom no longer an issue?https://grep.be/blog//en/computer/legal/freedom/comment_1885/Horst H. von Brand2014-03-01T13:42:06Z2011-07-09T21:14:44Z
Sorry, when RMS started GNU, there certainly was lots of free software around, and the BSDs were rather close to be fully free. Please look around a bit, and stop falling for the rewritten history.
Re: software freedom no longer an issue?https://grep.be/blog//en/computer/legal/freedom/comment_1888/Gunnar Wolf (gwolf@gwolf.org)2014-03-01T13:42:06Z2011-07-12T05:01:58Z
<p>Horst! What a surprise to see you here! I hope you get back and read my message/indirect greeting <img alt=";-)" src="https://grep.be/blog//smileys/smile4.png" /></p>
<p>Certainly, BSD was close to being complete, but still RMS made a huge, necessary contribution: Starting the <em>ideological</em> movement, setting a theoretical basis, and showing that it is possible at least to start that way.</p>
<p>Were it not for Stallman, we might have truly free software OSes, but they would have never get the traction and mindshare they got. Many of us here today were lured into Free Software many years ago first of all by ideological affinity.</p>
Yes, buthttps://grep.be/blog//en/computer/legal/freedom/comment_1889/marcelo (mmagallo@debian.org)2014-03-01T13:42:06Z2011-07-12T15:13:05Z
<p>I agree with what you are saying. I found Joe's post a bit odd, but I think he's onto something. I lean more towards the visual arts (painting and photography) and I agree with Joe in that digital makes it easier to remix, but I agree with you in that this does not mean that analog makes it impossible, it just requires (much) more skill.</p>
<p>That said, <em>my</em> local experience is that most artists interested in Free Culture do <em>not</em> share the Free Software values, which is, I believe, the point Joe failed to make. I'd love to see a Free Culture movement, but right now I think there's close to none of that. In CC terms, there's way too many people focused on BY-NC-ND and too little on BY-SA or BY.</p>