Re: Free spyware (was: Turning GNU into a bottom-up organization)

[Dmitry Alexandrov]

Colby Russell <colby@colbyrussell.com> wrote:
> consider the case of bona fide spyware that turns out to be released by its 
> author under GPLv3.  It therefore guarantees your ability to exercise the 
> four freedoms, but does it actually *respect* the user's freedoms?

If besides being shipped under a free licence it is shipped in sources, it does 
respects these freedoms.  How did you come to the conclusion that it may not?  
Or do you imply that users shall not be permitted to have a freedom to being 
spying on? ;-)

> I later reread "Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software" 
> <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html> and saw 
> that the subject was already broached in the section "Powerful, Reliable 
> Software Can Be Bad".  RMS writes:
>
>   This software might be open source and use the open source development  
> model, but it won't be free software
>
> If that's the case, then it has to be true that the four freedoms are 
> necessary but not sufficient to say that a piece of software is free software.

Please, do not distort RMSʼs words by quoting them selectively in the wrong 
context.  The article says nothing about free software that is spyware, it 
reads:

| Yet some open source supporters have proposed “open source DRM” software. 
Their idea is that, by publishing the source code of programs designed to 
restrict your access to encrypted media and by allowing others to change it, 
they will produce more powerful and reliable software for restricting users 
like you. The software would then be delivered to you in devices that do not 
allow you to change it.
|
| This software might be open source and use the open source development model, 
but it won't be free software since it won't respect the freedom of the users 
that actually run it. If the open source development model succeeds in making 
this software more powerful and reliable for restricting you, that will make it 
even worse.

Key words are “do not allow you to change it”.  Cf. tivoization.

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