Re: [Fsfe-uk] open source software and uk government

[Alex Hudson]

On Mon, 2001-12-17 at 14:19, Georg C. F. Greve wrote:
>  || Alex Hudson <address@hidden> wrote: 
>  ah>  "Although the Supporters of Open Source sofware often stress
>  ah> that it is free only in the sense of 'free speech', it is
>  ah> important to note ... the license shall not require a ... fee for
>  ah> such a sale"
> 
> There is no requirement to pass Free Software on for no charge. They
> appear to be somewhat confused about the definition of Free Software.

Hmm. Seems we interpret that sentance differently :) I read it as, "you
are allowed to share the software" (or, "you are not required to charge
for passing it on"). Rather than, "you are not allowed to charge to pass
it on". Perhaps I chopped too much out of that quote!! Hopefully people
will read for themselves, rather than assume my interpretation of what
they've said is correct :)

> It seems they have picked up some parts (from a biased source) but not
> really understood Free Software. Does anyone have contact to the
> people involved in this study? We should point out those mistakes.

I don't even have the full report (the library only appears to contain a
truncated version). The company appear to be www.qinetiq.com.

I'm not sure they set out to understand free software; they quote the
Open Source Definition from opensource.org, and they use the term Open
Source rather than Free Software knowingly (section 1.2.6). However, it
then becomes difficult to reconcile this with that fact that the "Open
Source" software they talk about is also Free software (e.g., I don't
think Sun's community license, or Microsoft's shared source, would be
considered 'Open Source' in this case), so perhaps they've read too much
biased material & believe it...

It may well be worth writing something to both QinetiQ and the
Government, about where we agree with this document (some of it is very
good), where we disagree and why the benefits of 'Open Source' this
document points out are actually the benefits of Free Software, and why
the Open Source game is dangerous.

Cheers,

Alex.

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