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Unethical as in free software proponents believe that you ought to be able to run, study, modify and distribute software (kind of like basic rights such as food

by jumpwah 12y ago

Unethical as in free software proponents believe that you ought to be able to run, study, modify and distribute software (kind of like basic rights such as food, water, shelter etc.). Of course you're free to disagree if that's ethical or not. Imo, I already think it's too expensive for the age group their targeting (7-17) though. But I agree with you that instead of just starting them with a proprietary text editor that nags you, it's better to educate about licensing beforehand. Otherwise, it'll just perpetuate the notion the 'nagging' dialog doesn't matter, until they found out when it's probably too late (as in they're already locked in due to habit). What if they agree that free software is ethically better? They might not (they probably don't care), but shouldn't we at least tell them what they're getting into just in case?

bad_user 12y ago
Yes, I totally agree that children should be educated in matters of licenses, as I've said. They need to understand the pros and cons. I also believe that they should be taught not to pirate stuff. Piracy is partially responsible for a lot of things, amongst which: 1) developers are not paid accordingly to their contributions and I'm thinking here especially of indie games developers that suffer the most from this 2) open-source is not as popular as it should - for example whenever a Gimp vs Photoshop thread comes up in which Gimp is said to "suck" by comparison, it infuriates me immensely since I bet that a large percentage of Photoshop users are pirating it and so Gimp doesn't get the credit or the attention that it deserves. Actually piracy limits competition, since this is a problem for all Photoshop alternatives, not only for open-source. 3) monstrosities like DRM which end up punishing well behaved people, since DRM doesn't really work except for lock-in purposes, but hey, companies get away with it because piracy 4) closed platforms that mandate the installation of apps from app stores, because safety and piracy In general I do not agree that piracy is like stealing, but it does real harm and children should be taught not to pirate, primarily out of respect for other human beings.
- jumpwah 12y ago
  Yes, some great points. Agree with everything you said here.

by jumpwah 12y ago

bad_user 12y ago

Yes, I totally agree that children should be educated in matters of licenses, as I've said. They need to understand the pros and cons. I also believe that they should be taught not to pirate stuff. Piracy is partially responsible for a lot of things, amongst which: 1) developers are not paid accordingly to their contributions and I'm thinking here especially of indie games developers that suffer the most from this 2) open-source is not as popular as it should - for example whenever a Gimp vs Photoshop thread comes up in which Gimp is said to "suck" by comparison, it infuriates me immensely since I bet that a large percentage of Photoshop users are pirating it and so Gimp doesn't get the credit or the attention that it deserves. Actually piracy limits competition, since this is a problem for all Photoshop alternatives, not only for open-source. 3) monstrosities like DRM which end up punishing well behaved people, since DRM doesn't really work except for lock-in purposes, but hey, companies get away with it because piracy 4) closed platforms that mandate the installation of apps from app stores, because safety and piracy In general I do not agree that piracy is like stealing, but it does real harm and children should be taught not to pirate, primarily out of respect for other human beings.

jumpwah 12y ago
Yes, some great points. Agree with everything you said here.