Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Gitlab and Gitorious (was Re: support me)

[Aaron Wolf]

I disagree, Mark. The restrictions made by Copyleft are blocking
additional restrictions. So, determining the "minimal restrictions for
*everyone*" involves knowing something about the net effect. Copyleft is
net increase in restrictions in a situation where permissively-licensed
software would never be used to make proprietary derivatives. Copyleft
is net reduction in restrictions in a situation where copyleft licensing
actually hampers the creation of proprietary derivatives that would
happen others (or keeps those same derivates free/libre where they may
not have been otherwise).

So, you cannot make a blanket statement here. Copyleft uses some minimal
restrictions to block additional restrictions. Determining the effect on
total restrictions requires knowledge about whether additional
restrictions would be implemented otherwise.

-Aaron

On 03/07/2015 07:19 AM, Mark Holmquist wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 07, 2015 at 09:26:04AM -0500, Richard Stallman wrote:
>> Copyleft is not a restriction.  It is a defense against restrictions
>> imposed by middlemen on the users.
> 
> However short-sighted and basically utilitarian the quoted rationale for
> avoiding copyleft may be, I think it's impossible for copyleft not to
> be a restriction. If it did not restrict people from distributing under
> different licenses, it would no longer be called copyleft, it would just
> be called public domain.
> 
> Now, you could definitely say that copyleft is not a restriction on the
> end user, but if you're looking to minimize the restrictions for *everyone*,
> including developers of derivatives or applications that use your code,
> then copyleft is not your license.
>