Re: [libreplanet-discuss] What do you think about the FSF using/endorsing nonfree cultural works?

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

The free software movement is concerned about the essential
freedoms towards functional data[1] and the freedom to, at least,
redistribute verbatim copies of a non-functional data
non-commercially[2] (except for the case of evaluating system
distributions, which must also provide only non-functional data that
gives, at least, the freedom to redistribute verbatim copies of the
original work both for commercial and non-commercial purposes[3]).

This is not to say that we don't accept free cultural works. Quite
the contrary, we just don't think that the absence of the
essential freedoms towards non-functional data causes the same moral or
ethical dilemmas as the absence of the essential freedoms towards
functional data[2].

Besides, we actually need to establish some priority order[4]. Ideally,
almost every functional data must be freed first. Only then (after
reaching the state of a free and just digital society), we can thing of
pushing the, until now, secondary goals (like free hardware designs and
non-functional data) a step above the usual[4][5].

Off-topic: I often hear people saying that free hardware designs "must
exist first" or "must be a priority", and that "free software can't
exist without free hardware designs". But I've been thing about it for a
while, and so far, I consider all functional data (except hardware
designs of course) to be a priority because free hardware designs can't
exist without the other functional data being free. You could go wild
and draw a free hardware design by paper, but you'll need free
firmware for a 3D printer[6] or some high precision device to reproduce
the design uniformly across various plastic surfaces. You would also
need an implementation of the format used to store the necessary
firmware inside FPGAs (field-programmable gate array) chips[7], and
also need free software to write in HDL (hardware description language)
and make sure that the design supports software written in this
manner[7]. Finally, you'll also need free software/firmware for
secondary embedded processors (for which we currently have none[8],
that's why the Respects Your Freedom is so "benevolent" in this matter,
although it will change when one is officially known and approved by
the free software movement[8]). But this thing about hardware designs
is subject to another topic, not this one. If you do want to discuss it
further, please create a new topic on this regard referencing this
message.

And here spoke an unemployed 22-year old human, which doesn't
understand a thing about hardware manufacturing or programming in
general. :D


REFERENCES


[1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html

[2]
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/google-engineering-talk#copyright-art-vs-software

[3]
http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html.en#non-functional-data

[4] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html#hw-and-sw

[5]
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html#reject-nonfree

[6]
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html#ethical-3d-printers

[7] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html#boundary

[8] http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/criteria#fs