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You can choose to be denied a freedom, quite obviously. If you choose to use Skype you are granted the ability to make free Skype calls. You are denied the free
by new299 13y ago
You can choose to be denied a freedom, quite obviously. If you choose to use Skype you are granted the ability to make free Skype calls. You are denied the freedom to:
* Freely distribute
* Modify
* Read the source code.
Among others, so it's a trade off. One that Stallman disagrees with and believes denies you too many freedoms.
Stallman is a weird guy, and hardly a pragmatist. But I don't think the things he says can be described as Bullshit, they are largely internally consistant. And to be frank, given the NSA revelations, I think we need rather more weird idealists than less.
Dr new299
- rimantas 13y agoNo matter how you spin is, the end result is: installing Skype gives me more freedom than not having it. That'a all. There is no freedom it denies.
- dllthomas 13y agoYou don't, mostly[1], lose freedom by installing Skype. You lose freedom by becoming reliant on Skype, and by installing (and using) Skype you are putting yourself at significant risk of that. [1] You also may lose some control over your system, which may limit your freedom. At the extreme, consider malware. Recent, relevant Dilbert comic that I assume is an exaggeration: http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2013-11-06 http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2013-11-06