Re: The General Public Licence (GPL) as the basic governance tool

[Kaz Kylheku (gnu-misc-discuss)]

On 2020-02-18 04:55, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> As a GNU user, you may not know it but GNU maintainers do not currently
> agree to uphold the free software values that we care about; they 
> merely

This is misleading. The situation is that GNU maintainers can *think*
whatever they want, but in the end, the software remains copylefted.

A GNU maintainer is free to think that programmers should make boatloads
of money from binary-only, proprietary software or SaaS or what have 
you,
and drive Porsches.

That is neither here nor there, because at the end of the day, the
GNU package remains copylefted.

Not telling people what they should think is a good thing.

...

Or, so you would think. But look where that laxness has brought us.

Now a bunch of ragamuffins have gone as far as to create a fake
GNU website and are trying to stage some political takeover.

Maybe GNU maintainers should be subject to a background check,
and to pledge an oath of loyalty to prevent future recurrences of
this sort of embarrassing dog and pony show.

> The Social Contract is a way for interested GNU maintainers to state
> their will to uphold these core values.

This is a lie. Only the first clause of this document deals with free
software values.

The last clause is a piece of PC rhetoric that is not related in any
way, shape or form to free software.