[CS-FSLUG] The Moral Foundation of Free Software

[Ed Hurst]

brenda wrote:
>>Most of the licenses people have kicking around are of the OEM
>>variety.  According to the EULA, these are tied to the hardware in
>>question, so if the whole machine were donated (or a "large enough"
>>component of it) then you'd be legal.  Of course if the BSA comes
>>around they're likely to be demanding legal documentation ... although
>>I don't think that they'd be quite as agressive in pursuing a church
>>as a profit-oriented business.
> 
> i dont consider a school as a profit oriented business yet BSA has targeted 
> schools before.

Quite so. Whatever withholds the whip hand of the BSA against churches
is probably unknowable without being privy to BSA's councils.

> i really struggle sometimes with Christian principals and F/OSS especially 
> when you read the philosphies of some coders.but i also have problems the 
> same way with the world i come into contact with everyday.
> the only thing i can do is what is right for me.i cant decide what is right 
> for others.i would hope that my walk in Christ would help to encourage others 
> to do the same.it is still choices we all must make.
> sorry if i missed the point to this discussion and apologies.
> brenda banks  aka br3n

No, you do get the point, br3n. However, for those of use called to
lead, the question is a bit more thorny. How far do we go in advocating
FOSS for churches? Far too many seem to operate without really deciding
anything; they just grab the first thing a salesman pushes at them. Some
of us want to compete with the salesmen, but not for the church dollars.
We want to sell an idea, with costs in a different currency, and a
payback to us in a different currency -- a currency very hard to define,
because it includes things like holiness, but in an area where the
definitions of "holy" are subject to debate.

So we debate. Part of what fires the debate for some is a desire to see
a oneness. This oneness remains an untapped potential, I believe we can
all agree, but the mechanism is two millennia away from the time and
place that gave Christianity birth. I've already ranted how the oneness
should not included melding our institutions and organizations
completely, for various reasons, but there are things on which we
already cooperate between the various religious agencies.

Should the oneness include advocating FOSS?

-- 
Ed Hurst
-----------
A Bible Site -- http://webs.tconline.net/softedges/
Linux & Unix Help -- http://ed.asisaid.com/
Blog -- http://ed.asisaid.com/blog/