Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Fwd: The FSF Allows No Derivatives

[Aaron Wolf]

There are *certainly* distinctions between executable binary computer
programs and other media, just as there are distinctions between live
concerts and movies and math formulas and personal letters. Of course
there are different media and different contexts. And different computer
programs may be more or less important (consider heart monitor software
versus a trivial time-kill game).

The question is whether there is any distinction that actually affects
the conclusions regarding arguments about intellectual and creative
freedoms.

On 05/15/2015 02:43 PM, klez wrote:
> I won't explicitly take a stance on the issue (at the moment I'm still
> trying to form an opinion on that), but the clear distinction (to me)
> is that software *does* something, while a written text does not.
> 
> On Fri, 15 May 2015 14:35:09 -0700
> Aaron Wolf <wolftune@riseup.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On 05/15/2015 02:27 PM, Yoni Rabkin wrote:
>>> Aaron Wolf <wolftune@riseup.net> writes:
>>>
>>>> Why the incredible desire to use existing source code? Why not use
>>>> the wasted time and efforts spent arguing about this reverse
>>>> engineering your software and just be done with it. …
>>>
>>> Because works of personal opinion are different than useful
>>> software.
>>>
> 
>> Not different enough so that the same completely useless statement
>> from Terry couldn't be applied identically. If you want to push this
>> distinction, you are being intellectually dishonest if you don't allow
>> the very same logic and arguments to be applied. If the distinction is
>> real, then there *must* be cases where you can take the same logic and
>> show that it applies in one case and not the other.
> 
>> The example you are replying to is not that. The "you're wasting time,
>> do it yourself" argument works for both unless you get into discussing
>> whether someone like RMS spending lots of time and talent writing
>> clearly is somehow different from software engineers doing the same
>> with code.
> 
>> It's put simply in Nina's
>> http://blog.ninapaley.com/2011/07/04/rantifesto/
> 
>> She points out that in the argument from RMS / FSF about "works of
>> opinion" the language changes.
> 
>> 'notice how users are now called “recipients,” and their Freedoms are
>> now called “permissions”'
> 
>> If you can't make your point about the distinction by applying the
>> *identical* arguments and yet come to a different conclusion, then the
>> issues between the different media are *not* distinct in this regard.
> 
>> And complaining about the arguing is just a complete cop-out.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Aaron Wolf
co-founder, Snowdrift.coop
music teacher, wolftune.com