[Pan-users] Re: OT: GNU/Linux Was: clearing headers?

[Duncan]

Greg Lee <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:29:22
+0000:

> So, let me see if I understand your principle.  True freedom includes
> the right not to be criticized for discourtesy or for failure to give
> credit where credit is due.  Do I have that right?  Even if there is an
> ethical requirement, this must not be /claimed/, for fear of infringing
> the freedom of those not meeting the requirement by calling attention to
> their failure.

But there's not an ethical requirement.  That's what I've been saying.  
There's an accepted requirement to acknowledge where individual software 
packages come from and that's done.  There's no requirement, legal or 
ethical, that a particular name is used, either collectively or for 
individual packages.

IOW, so it's called Linux and that happens to be the name of a supposedly 
more minor component than all of what GNU contributed.  Big deal.  It 
could be called "xunil" or "ung" or "linux" or "gnu" or "cows jump over 
the moon" for all it matters.  Neither GNU nor SugarCRM can ethically 
force a particular name or sub-name, or it's no longer free software.  
Requiring that the sources be made available to the user so they can make 
modifications as they find useful is one thing.  Requiring, either 
ethically or legally, that they use a particular name, is quite something 
else, and that makes it unfree, whether that requirement is legal or just 
claimed ethical.  The claim to a particular name or subname simply isn't 
legit, nor can it be made so and maintain the freedom of the software at 
issue.  Requiring you /not/ (negative name requirement due to 
reservation) to use a particular /reserved/ name if there are changes 
(basically trademark enforcement) is allowed, but requiring that a 
particular name or name component be included (positive name 
requirement), simply doesn't work.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman