Open Hardware Creative Commons Draft

jon at rejon.org jon at rejon.org
Sat Jul 17 03:52:09 EDT 2010


below.

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 12:42 PM, Werner Almesberger
<werner at openmoko.org> wrote:
> jon at rejon.org wrote:
>> This is not acceptable. Free Software should run on Free Hardware.
>> Translation: Copyleft Software should run on Copyleft Hardware.
>
> Please be careful. If you prefix it with "This is not acceptable",
> the second sentence assumes the meaning of "Free Software must run
> (exclusively) on Free Hardware."

Sure. What I said still stands. Of course, we can see a scenario where
copyleft hardware also doesn't care what software is run on the
hardware, similar to how free software is hardware agnostic. Sure,
that is fine. I'm just making a pure statement about the ideal
scenario for both free/copyleft hardware and software.

> Since there is very little Free Hardware today, this would amount
> to you telling most people not to use Free Software either. I'm not
> sure if it would be worse if they actually heeded your advice or if
> they simply decide you're one of those zealots and choose to ignore
> you henceforth, no matter how reasonable your other arguments may
> be.
>
> A gentler approach would be to a) make people understand that is it
> desirable to use Free Hardware, even if acting on that desire may
> not be possible at the time, and of course b) work towards creating
> choices to run Free Software also on Free Hardware. Having done a)
> first, b) will fall on more fertile ground, too.
>

I agree with your final paragraph. However, you have to understand
that I'm voicing some time-based opinions in the warmth of our
homebase. This is not the way I would try to bring people to the
waters of qi. I'm quite aware of the sensitivities of people and not
nuking opportunities, from my days converting folks to Creative
Commons licenses.

Jon


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Jon Phillips
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