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

[Timothy R. Butler]

Hmm... I really was fiery. Forgive me if my posts come across too edgy. 
I knew better than to write them half way through all the good 
condemnations going on in the aformentioned sermon, "The Dangers of an 
Unconverted Ministry." Not being the speaking/preaching type, and 
certainly not of the fire and brimstone type, I still could have 
probably done an off-the-cuff pulpit pounding last hour. :-)

Again, I'm sorry if it comes over as too harsh.

	-Tim

On Feb 28, 2005, at 9:11 PM, Timothy R. Butler wrote:

>>
>> 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
> ==================== <tbutler at uninet.info> ====================
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---------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
==================== <tbutler at uninet.info> ====================
| Christian Portal:      | Have you not learned great lessons |
|      www.faithtree.com | from those  who  braced themselves |
| GNU/Linux News:        | against  you   and   disputed  the |
|            www.ofb.biz | passage with you?   --Walt Whitman |
---------------------------------------------------------------
Presently on "Albert" (DP PPC 970 "G5" running at 2.0 GHz)