[kde-community] Request to join the Kde incubator for GCompris

[Kevin Krammer]

Hi,

On Friday, 2014-02-14, 15:25:19, Shlomi Fish wrote:
> Hi Kevin,
> 
> On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 13:59:19 +0100
> 
> Kevin Krammer <krammer at kde.org> wrote:

> > I doubt that the FSF has any problem with cryptography being used to
> > protect users from software from untrusted sources so I doubt that they
> > do not consider signing acceptable.
> > 
> > The problem with Tivo, as far as I understand, is not them signing their
> > binaries and checking that signature before execution.
> > The problem is that Tivo does not provide an adequate mechanism to
> > register
> > new keys. Which of course denies the user at least one of the four core
> > principles of Free Software.
> > 
> > I doubt that Tivo asked the FSF whether withholding one of the Four
> > Freedoms would be OK and the FSF said yes. I doubt they would even need
> > to ask their legal counsels.
> 
> For reference, see http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.elitists/12768 -
> but I'm not sure if the sources in this thread cite their sources.

Only vague claims that Tivo asked whether something would be OK, no reference 
to the document or anything more tangible.

I have my doubts that they asked for what the intended to do, because being 
able tp replace the software in question with a modifed version is one of the 
core purposes of Free Software.

And I strongly doubt that the FSF would let making that impossible pass as 
"allright".

> In any
> case, free-and-open-source-software (FOSS) *can* be used to deprive people
> of their freedoms.

I fail to see how that is relevant. 

> For example, I can use GNU Awk (under GPLv3) to
> automatically sublicense the sources of an X11Led under a proprietary
> licence and then sell this to whoever wants to buy it (after possible
> modifying it).

And that impacts the Four Freedoms of Awk users how exactly?

> One thing the
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition [1] says is that
> the program can be used for any purpose (arguably linking against GPLed
> code from non-GPL compatible code is such a purpose, but... ask the FSF,
> not me - I just work here).

Yes, the GCC linker can link GPLed code to non-GPLed code. In fact the linker 
does not know anything about licenses at all. It only cares about object 
symbols.

The FSF and its licenses are very clear about not restricting use of programs.
They even call it Freedom 0.

Cheers,
Kevin

-- 
Kevin Krammer, KDE developer, xdg-utils developer
KDE user support, developer mentoring
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