[Asterisk-Users] Re: Digium Website Update: Asterisk Business Edition

[Esben Stien]

"trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com" <trixter at 0xdecafbad.com> writes:

> Limits increase this freedom?  I dont understand how placing limits
> on its use increases its freedom, could you please explain that to
> me?

The "limits" are put on people to ensure that the software stays free;
that's a big part of the idea here. Free software is much a matter of
definition and when most of us talk about free software, we talk about
it in the way it's defined by the free software foundation. The gpl's
purpose is to protect the freedoms that comes with free software.

Putting a program in the public domain, uncopyrighted allows people to
share the program and their improvements, if they are so minded. But
it also allows uncooperative people to convert the program into
proprietary software. They can make changes, many or few, and
distribute the result as a proprietary product. People who receive the
program in that modified form do not have the freedom that the
original author gave them; the middleman has stripped it away.

The aim of the copyleft, the gpl, is to give all users the freedom to
redistribute and change software. If middlemen could strip off the
freedom, we might have many users, but those users would not have
freedom. So instead of putting this software in the public domain, it
get's ``copylefted'. Copyleft says that anyone who redistributes the
software, with or without changes, must pass along the freedom to
further copy and change it. Copyleft guarantees that every user has
the freedoms defined in the free software definition.

Proprietary software developers use copyright to take away the users'
freedom; the gpl is to guarantee their freedom. 

So, clearly there is a need for the gpl, in my opinion. With these
limits, the free software stays free.

> proposed gpl 3.0 

I'd rather not discuss version 3 until a draft is available.

PS:

``Free software'' does not mean ``non-commercial''. A free program
must be available for commercial use, commercial development, and
commercial distribution. Commercial development of free software is no
longer unusual; such free commercial software is very important.

One can use ``copyleft'' to protect these freedoms legally for everyone. 

-- 
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