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I think we have a different view on the meaning of "pay with your changes." I take it to mean "you must send patches/pull requests/... to the upstream project,"

by tmtvl 4y ago

I think we have a different view on the meaning of "pay with your changes." I take it to mean "you must send patches/pull requests/... to the upstream project," which isn't the case. Whereas, if my reading of your message is right (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) you consider it to mean something like "you must make the changes you make public." I personally wouldn't consider the second interpretation as "paying" for Free Software any more as I would consider having people publically criticise me as "paying" for Free Expression.

sokoloff 4y ago
You only have to send your changes to anyone to whom you distribute the modified program. If that’s upstream, then you have to offer them upstream. If that’s to someone else who then decides to share them upstream, that’s also something you can’t prevent. If you don’t distribute the program, you don’t have to send your changes anywhere. (My main point was your citation of only Section 5 was incomplete with regards to your obligations under GPL.)