[pp.int.general] Why Free Software misses the point

[Boris Turovskiy]

Hi I.K.,
> To me this point of view also seems anti-pirate in a certain sense. 
> Think about what do we stand for fundamentaly. A wording may be 
> different, but it is basically that people's free access to 
> information (as long as it is not for commercial purposes) is their 
> fundamental right.
Here comes the first point, the non-commercial clause - good that you 
pointed it out for me. The Pirate ideas usually make a clear distinction 
between "commercial" and "non-commercial", with most of our positions 
focusing on freedoms in the non-commercial area. However, it is 
explicitly stated in the FSF's description of "essential freedoms" that 
there should not be a difference between commercial and non-commercial 
use and distribution. And if we applied their position to other works, 
the hugely popular (among pirates, too) CC-BY-NC license would be 
considered just as "bad" or "unfree" as a "all rights reserved" license.

> And restricting this access is unethical.
> For example, restricting people's access to a book is unethical. So 
> why restricting people's access to a source code is fine with you? It 
> is just another kind of information. And AFAIK, PPG treats software in 
> the same way as all the other creations - so why don't you demand the 
> same treatment for it as for the others?
Not access itself but the possibility of sharing (granting access to 
others) or modifying of something I already have access to. If a writer 
writes a book and locks it in their drawer, we don't arrive at their 
door saying "Show us the book, you don't have the rights to restrict our 
access to it!"; neither can we force a band to put their releases online 
in uncompressed form if they decide to only release them in mp3. In the 
same way, if a software developer writes a program and releases only the 
compiled version, not the code, it's his right. After all, we require 
that there be a right of sharing, not an obligation to do so.

Best regards,
Boris