Re: Fwd: Re: [Fsfe-uk] Free Software Magazine

[MJ Ray]

Jason Clifford wrote:
> What makes you think a magazine should be published under a software
> license? It's not software so the licensing requirements are different.

Maybe or maybe not, but the desired freedoms are the same. Personally,
I think that if it is stored "in" a computer, it's probably software.
That's not really important to the freedom point, though.

Now, this Free Software Magazine is a lot better than its
competitors. It's been more liberal on copyright than any other
I've seen lately and should be applauded for it. Tom asked us to
promote it to others and I offered comments on what I think would
make it more "buyable": top is an online service with annual
archive volumes. The other things mostly discourage *me* from
subscribing, which makes me less likely to promote it to others.
I think I've been clear about that.

I dislike the FDL's compromise that allows anyone to forever
stain the written work with adverts yet still claim it is "free"
in some way. What makes it right for text authors to impose that
restriction on others when we think program authors shouldn't? If
someone does that to BSD'd software, then we don't call it free
software any more.

I reject the idea that political speech is more precious than
technical instruction.  Both of them have their place, their
uses and abuses. At the end of the day, this is about being
able to *use* stuff, even politics.

"We can't depend for the long run on distinguishing one bitstream
from another in order to figure out which rules apply" - Eben Moglen

The FDL is not particularly -uk-related. If you can think of
somewhere else to move this, please let me know.

-- 
MJR