[License-discuss] FAQ suggestion

[Luis Villa]

Karl, Richard, anyone else: any thoughts on this?


On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Luis Villa <luis at lu.is> wrote:

> That seems like a reasonable addition to me, and addresses real, recent
> confusion.
>
> Karl and Richard are on planes today, and I would like to hear their
> thoughts before taking it live, though.
>
> Thanks, Engel!
> Luis
> On Nov 10, 2013 10:38 AM, "Engel Nyst" <engel.nyst at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello license-discuss,
>>
>> I would propose an additional paragraph to the FAQ, for the question
>> What is "free software" and is it the same as "open source"?
>>
>> The text currently says:
>> > One of the tactical concerns most often cited by adopters of the term
>> > "open source" was the ambiguity of the English word "free", which can
>> > refer either to freedom or to mere monetary price; this ambiguity was
>> > also given by the OSI founders as a reason to prefer the new term
>> > (see "What Does `free' Mean, Anyway?", and similar language on the
>> > marketing for hackers page, both from the original 1998 web site).
>>
>> At this point in the text, I'd suggest to insert a little explanation on
>> the ambiguity in the use of the term of open source as well. Quick draft...
>>
>> > On the other hand, the term "open" applied to the source is sometimes
>> > used in the sense of merely "provided" or "visible", but the open
>> > source definition sets the criteria for "open source" to software
>> > licenses that guarantee a set of perpetual and irrevocable
>> > rights to every recipient.
>>
>> The text should then probably skip "furthermore", and continue...
>>
>> > The FSF uses a shorter, four-point definition of software freedom
>> > when evaluating licenses, while the OSI uses a longer, ten-point
>> > definition. The two definitions lead to the same result in practice,
>> > but use superficially different language to get there.
>>
>> I hope it will help with a number of misunderstandings.
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>>
>
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