Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software (2007)

I think this is an important distinction to be aware of. Licenses like the GPL exist for a reason. And that reason is an attempt to maximize the amount of software that is free. Licenses like the MIT and BSD license exist for a different reason. And that reason is to give people who want to share what they did on generous terms a way to do so. And historically this was done in the belief that enlightened users would…

In the years to come, I believe free software will be recognised as one of the paradigmatic changes in how science itself is done. Now chemists and biologists have started talking about making data openly available and so forth. It's a shame that RMS has to spout forth on every issue, and in the current climate of outrage, science may have lost an important transformational voice. I think as a society, we need to calm down a bit. We should…

I'm not a big fan on GPL anymore. When I create some software I prefer the user of my software to have all freedoms including the freedom to embed it in closed source software.

The point, for me at least, is to increase the total volume of freedom in the world. Here is a radical thought: Western Civilization hasn't reached "freedom peak". The freedom level can continue to rise or it can decrease. Peasants in the Middle Ages probably thought they were free. We think we are free. How silly do we think those peasants were? How silly will future generations think we are? It depends. If everyone just shrugs their shoulders, then we…