Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Gratis software being released as proprietary

[Mike Gerwitz]

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On Fri, Aug 14, 2015 at 09:55:18 +0200, Steen Engholm wrote:
> The focus of open source is remarkable in many ways and is very competible
> in relation to ordinary commercial markets - this is where free software
> and open source software ideally is alike .. but, obviously not with the
> same focus.
>
> I must confess there is some obfuscation in that "focus" of open source and
> free software seem to melt together.
> The software products of open source and free software has been described
> for example by Bruce Perens as an alternative business-model, and there is
> not much to say here on the difference between free software and open
> source.

The free software movement is not opposed to selling software[0], but it
is not a goal (as is evident in our terminology[1])---writing free
software is, regardless of how it is distributed, as long as
distributors follow the terms of the program's free software
license, and do not use nasty tricks like Tvioization (which is
prohibited in the GPLv3).  Commercialization of free software and
exploitation of the philosophy as a _development model_ is "open
source".

Free software reaps similar benefits, and the overlap is strong[2],
but it's important to focus on ethical issues relating to software
freedom when speaking about free software, otherwise our point is lost.[3]

[0]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html
[1]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#SellSoftware
[2]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-open-overlap.html
[3]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

- -- 
Mike Gerwitz
Free Software Hacker | GNU Maintainer
http://mikegerwitz.com
FSF Member #5804 | GPG Key ID: 0x8EE30EAB
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