4 ms·

Are you aware that copyright law is the foundation of FOSS licenses?

by AceJohnny2 3y ago

jimnotgym 3y ago
You wouldn't need it if copyright didn't exist in the first place
- AceJohnny2 3y ago
  Of course you would. For example, thanks to copyright law, Linksys was forced to share their Linux customizations to run on router hardware, which led to the creation of the OpenWRT project. Without copyright law, any actor can take your open system and close it.
  - Filligree 3y ago
    A lot of people are fine with that. Look at everyone who uses the BSD or MIT license.
    - AceJohnny2 3y ago
      The fact that they have the option to choose it is different than it being the only possibility.
- maxerickson 3y ago
  "Free Software" requires making source code available to users. If copyright didn't exist, there would not even be a hypothetical mechanism to require that of publishers.
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago
  > You wouldn't need it if copyright didn't exist in the first place No popular open source license that I am aware of attempts to emulate a no-copyright situation: If there was no copyright, you could not force anybody to provide the source code of any derivative work (situation for copyleft licenses). On the other hand, in a no-copyright situation, you are not able to sue anybody who attempts to reverse-engineer such a derived binary blob and publish the reverse-engineered source code. Thus, an open-source license that attempts to emulate a no-copyright situation would in my opinion have clauses like the following: - you are allowed to create binary-only derived works, and are allowed to sell copies of it - you must not sue anybody who redistributes these copies (even for money) - you must not disallow any licensees to reverse-engineer these executables - you must not disallow any owner of a copy to create any derivative work (even using reverse-engineering techni, as long as this work is licenses under this license. This in particular means that, if you create a derivative work, you have to take care that you cannot redistribute copies that (statically) link the work with parts for which this is disallowed

Are you aware that copyright law is the foundation of FOSS licenses?

jimnotgym 3y ago

You wouldn't need it if copyright didn't exist in the first place

AceJohnny2 3y ago
Of course you would. For example, thanks to copyright law, Linksys was forced to share their Linux customizations to run on router hardware, which led to the creation of the OpenWRT project. Without copyright law, any actor can take your open system and close it.
- Filligree 3y ago
  A lot of people are fine with that. Look at everyone who uses the BSD or MIT license.
  - AceJohnny2 3y ago
    The fact that they have the option to choose it is different than it being the only possibility.
maxerickson 3y ago
"Free Software" requires making source code available to users. If copyright didn't exist, there would not even be a hypothetical mechanism to require that of publishers.
aleph_minus_one 3y ago
> You wouldn't need it if copyright didn't exist in the first place No popular open source license that I am aware of attempts to emulate a no-copyright situation: If there was no copyright, you could not force anybody to provide the source code of any derivative work (situation for copyleft licenses). On the other hand, in a no-copyright situation, you are not able to sue anybody who attempts to reverse-engineer such a derived binary blob and publish the reverse-engineered source code. Thus, an open-source license that attempts to emulate a no-copyright situation would in my opinion have clauses like the following: - you are allowed to create binary-only derived works, and are allowed to sell copies of it - you must not sue anybody who redistributes these copies (even for money) - you must not disallow any licensees to reverse-engineer these executables - you must not disallow any owner of a copy to create any derivative work (even using reverse-engineering techni, as long as this work is licenses under this license. This in particular means that, if you create a derivative work, you have to take care that you cannot redistribute copies that (statically) link the work with parts for which this is disallowed