Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Copyfree

[Aaron Wolf]

On 02/25/2016 06:49 AM, Fabio Pesari wrote:
> On 02/22/2016 11:49 PM, Aaron Wolf wrote:
>>
>> Yeah. I'd be curious your thoughts about our page discussing licensing
>> issues:
>> https://snowdrift.coop/p/snowdrift/w/en/licenses
> 
> I appreciate that you support libre licenses but, if I understood it
> correctly, Copyfree ([0]) does not allow copyleft licenses, as well as
> permissive licenses which forbid DRM (like the CC BY).
> 

Oh that's absolutely correct, but *we* aren't Copyfree. We're AGPLv3+. I
am a strong copyleft advocate myself.

The point is that we acknowledge the position of the Copyfree folks.
They are not the proprietary people wanting to restrict things, they are
the hardcore anti-copyright people who reject the whole nature of
government-granted monopolies. They are anti-proprietary *and*
anti-copyleft out of principle.

Again, *I* am a copyleft supporter myself. But I acknowledge that there
*exists* this principled Copyfree approach that wants to avoid all forms
of legal encumberance and legal incompatibilities, and I acknowledge
that view is different than the far-too-common version of anti-copyleft
which basically is pro-proprietary.


> Their site goes as far as saying:
> 
>> it is open source and free software, but only the freest of open
>> source and free software
> 
> While the freedom to restrict others can be considered an additional
> freedom, that doesn't mean it should be granted!
> 
> In order for all people to be free, some freedoms must be necessarily
> restricted: the "freedom" to kill, for example, because if people are
> free to kill, the most ruthless and brutal of them will rule over
> everybody else.
> 
> Copyfree is a "philosophy" which is even more dangerous than open
> source, because at least the open source people had enough common sense
> to include copyleft licenses. I figured out someone would try to
> outright ban copyleft at some point but banning licenses which include
> anti-DRM clauses is truly one of the lowliest things I have ever seen!
> 
> And don't think I can't predict the counter arguments: that this is the
> purest and noblest form of libertarianism, that this is a step toward
> copyright abolition, and so on.
> 
> But in my humble opinion, their initiative is misanthropic and
> unethical. I would honestly not associate with them in any shape or
> form, and I am very disappointed you welcomed their founder into your
> steering committee.
> 

For reference, the Copyfree guy is not actually involved actively any
more. Also, he's a very nice reasonable person who isn't opposed to us
or our use of AGPL really.

The whole Copyfree thing has been done in a way that *promotes* their
Copyfree "pure libertarian" style things (which again, is not my view)
more than it focuses on attacking copyleft. That's not to say they like
copyleft, but they don't go around spreading misinformation. They don't
say "copyleft is evil, kill the GPL" or "GPL is bad for 'Open Source'"
etc. They basically take an ethical position that is a different tactic
than the one we prefer, but they are on the side of freedom, and this
view exists. It truly and sincerely opposes proprietary software, which
is what really matters.

Again, Snowdrift.coop is copyleft and generally favors copyleft, but we
acknowledge that copyleft is a tactic and has some unfortunate
side-effects regarding compatibility.

> I put Richard Stallman in CC, hopefully he'll provide us with some insights.
> 
> [0]: http://copyfree.org/standard/rejected
>