[LAU] Patch wars ? Debian vs. Fedora vs. ...

[drew Roberts]

On Saturday 26 September 2009 07:10:11 Steve Fosdick wrote:
> The way I see this the creator of a creative work including software,
> music etc. has various rights which include being identified as the
> creator and determining who may copy or use the work, for what purpose
> and how it may be adapted.  These rights are enshrined in copyright law.

I am not taking a position by posting any of the following.

Crudely worded, seems to me that the FSF's position is that copyright law got 
it wrong when it comes to functional works like code and that the creator 
does not or should not have these rights over the work. The GPL with the 
Freedoms it mentions and the copyleft it embodies is an attempt in their 
minds to put the put the wrongs of copyright right. (Couldn't resist the bit 
of word play. Hopefully it is still clear.)

Crosbie Fitch over at Digital Productions (if I get him right and can express 
it correctly in summary form) holds that there are Natural Rights when it 
comes to Intellectual Property but that they are not what is generally 
believed and that copyright law does not so much protect these rights that a 
creator does have but rather gives monopoly powers that the creator should 
not have. http://www.digitalproductions.co.uk/

> So, when we are talking about free software it is very likely the
> creator is happy for others to create patches but to be completely sure
> we must check which license applies and the terms of that license.

When I speak of Free Software, I am referring to software with one of the 
accepted Free licenses. If it is gratis and not libre, I generally refer to 
it as freeware but the topic does not often come up these days in my neck of 
the woods.

all the best,

drew