5 ms·

Those rights mean nothing if the user is not someone versed enough to modify the code. So in practice the rights are the rights of the developer.

• xoa 10y ago
  Incorrect, you've mistakenly conflated "in practice the rights are the rights of the original developer" with what the GPL aims to ensure, which is "in practice the rights are the rights of any developer". A user (which could be a user or an entire organization) need not possess any development skills themselves in order to hire somebody else with developer skills. I don't have a moral problem with proprietary software and think it has strengths, but the part of the core value of open source (or even simple available source, given the appropriate contractual terms[1]) could be defined as "potential for interchangeability" with respects to devs. If the original devs go in a direction that isn't desirable or for that matter got hit by a bus, there is at least the option for an individual, organization, or community sufficiently dependent or seeing sufficient value to take up the torch. Whether they have the skills directly to do it themselves is as irrelevant as whether they have the skills to maintain hardware or do building engineering or construction or whatever themselves. The ability to have a flexible and redundant market around maintaining foundational infrastructure and tooling isn't without value. 1. I personally think available source, even if only escrowed, should be flat out requirement for copyright period but that's a different discussion.
• Nursie 10y ago
  No, the GPL focusses on the rights of the user downstream of the developer, regardless of whether or not they are versed enough to be a developer, or just a tinkerer, or a kid just starting to learn about computers, or someone that can figure out enough to make that one tweak to something that's annoyed them or a user that pays a developer or... The point is the person who makes a few tweaks and distributes has to pass on that privilege.
• jimktrains2 10y ago
  Entirely false. First, if the user is someone who can modify the code, then the rights aren't just those of the original developer. Second, if the user is someone who can't, it provides them with the ability to hire someone who is, or to learn themselves. This is especially important when the original developer cannot or chooses to not support the software (at all or on a specific platform.) Take the coming y2038. For many things, the changes aren't immense, but the original developer could die in 2027 and never make them. Access to the source is crucial, even if the user doesn't think they'll need it or be able to use it themselves.
• rbanffy 10y ago
  > the user is not someone versed enough to modify the code. A good book can solve that.