Good ol' BSD vs. GPL

[grarpamp]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 12:35 AM, Rob Myers <rob at robmyers.org> wrote:
> Both restore rights that copyright otherwise restricts.

No. Copyright exists automatically in default state of "all rights
reserved". Any "restoration" you may wish or take for yourself
within that is an abuse of the author's rights as you have none. Any
rights to the author's work you may have are granted to you as the
author chooses. Subject to various limited notions...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_safety_valves
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing

> The GPL ensures that you are free to use the software even if you
> receive it from a third party.
> BSD doesn't do that.

Yes it does. The author can slap BSD or GPL on it, give it to Alice
who gives it to Bob who gives it Carl who gives it to you which you
then "use". There's no difference between the two there.

> Therefore BSD "grants" less freedom than the GPL.

No it doesn't. This has already been explained. GPL people often
confuse freedom vs force(d open source redistribution), and permissive
vs restrictive. Don't get confused.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_international_copyright_treaties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_copyright
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-copyright
Yarr!