[CS-FSLUG] TD: (Im)morality of (non)free software

[Timothy R. Butler]

>
> And I suppose that that is sad, if the improvements are good ones.  But
> it was the right of the improver to set his own terms for how the
> program was to be used, just as it was the right of the original author
> to set his.  The original author respected future programmers enough 
> not
> to step on their rights.

	Future developers have no rights, they have privileges granted to 
them. Software under any license is copyrighted, and therefore has no 
"rights" given to anyone other than the original creator.

	It's like Jonathan Edwards spoke about in "Sinners in the Hands of an 
Angry God." There is nothing but God's mere pleasure keeping the 
unrepentant from Hell. They are no more secure than a spider on a web 
about to be crushed by a rock. It is only by God's pleasure keeping 
everyone from being tossed into eternal torture right now (even those 
with the Grace of Christ, since it was only God's pleasure that granted 
it).[*]

	In very profane sense, the same goes with software. There is nothing 
but my good pleasure that allows you to use my code at all. Therefore, 
you have no right to demand more freedom. You are only receiving the 
privileges given because I feel like it.

> I don't see why this fear should matter to someone who's only 
> interested
> in benefitting the community.  After all, if I'm truly altruistic, why
> should I care whether someone closes a derivative of my code and makes
> money on it?  More power to them.  It was their right as a deriver,
> after all.

	I don't create software for the good of the world. I create it because 
it is a means to an end. A BSD license doesn't get me to my end because 
people take my code and keep their modifications. The GPL does help 
reach my end since it gives me something back for giving them all of my 
backbreaking work.

	-Tim
--
[*] If I sound fiery right now, that's because I've dealt with Edward's 
sermon in multiple places in the last week and am presently reading 
Gilbert Tennent's "Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry." Expect Free 
Software brimstone in my next message. ;-)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
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