Since you mention the GPL, a free software license written by Richard Stallman, this is somewhat akin to what Stallman describes in his talks about the freedoms of free software specifically freedom #2: the freedom to help your neighbour. So doing the thing that comes naturally with friends, non-commercial and verbatim sharing, is likely not allowed by that movie's license. By contrast, other famously shared copyrighted items (such as most Hollywood movies) aren't legal to share even if done non-commercially and verbatim. It's easy to do, the GPL is easy to comply with simply by also sharing a copy of the complete corresponding source code of the program at the same time as one shares the binary. One can and should share copies of GPL'd programs. We should recognize that the terms of the licenses involved between, say, the GNU General Public License (GPL) and a typical Hollywood movie, are radically different when it comes to doing what friends do: share. This difference gets to the heart of the problem in your point-you're conflating the legal with the ethical and then trying to get others to view all sharing as copyright infringement and all copyright infringement as equivalent because the law frames things in that way. A US judge, presiding over a trial for copyright infringement, recognized that "piracy" and "theft" are smear-words.". If the laws (the implementation) don't fit our ideas of right and wrong (the spec), the laws are what should change. Laws, at their best, attempt to implement justice. As the GNU Project points out in it's list of terms to avoid on " theft ": "In general, laws don't define right and wrong. So why not encourage GPL violators ("pirates" too)? Instead we seem to cheer whenever we find a GPL violator.įirst, we should understand what the propagandistic term "piracy" really means and understand that meaning as separate from sharing-a friendly, neighborly thing to do.
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