Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 20:25:25 -0400 From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> Public Domain status denotes more freedom than GPL. It allows all of the freedom of GPL and in addition, it allows the freedom of making proprietary modifications. Public domain gives person P the ability to make modified versions and give users no freedom in using them. The result is that people in general have less freedom. Your presentation confuses two different pieces of software. It is only the derivative work which has less freedom associated with it. It remains the case that the person releasing their software to the Public Domain has given the users of the software that is released into the Public Domain more freedom to do as they will with that software. By releasing into the Public Domain, the author gives up the power to control other people's activities and allows them to make different, derived, software which might not have the same level of freedom. However, such activities do not detract from the freedom that remains associated with the software that was released into the Public Domain -- freedom that is taken away by the GPL. And while some derivative works may be proprietary, it's not uncommon for other derivations to remain in the Public Domain. CMU Common Lisp is an example that comes to mind. Whether or not Lucid, Allegro, or any other proprietary system ever made use of any CMU Common Lisp code has not detracted from the code released into the Public Domain. This code continues to be maintained, enhanced, ported to new platforms, etc. Rick