71 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
71 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
This is a followup to "Tools and resources."
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A few relevant anti-acknowledgements:
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First, when I say I'd like to thank the entire open-source community,
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in this I'd like to exclude cryptocurrency peddlers, black-hat hackers,
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people who think it's okay to use AI to steal real people's art, and fascists.
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In a practical sense, I'm ashamed to admit I probably don't owe anyone
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any less thanks just because they fall into any of these categories,
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but any gratitude owed I withhold from them, and specifically them,
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as a matter of spite.
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Second, if you're an open-source enthusiast
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and believe ethical-source software is not open-source software,
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sorry, but I disagree. I don't care if you're from the OSI,
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or how many stars you have on GitHub. Actually, I do care,
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because if you're from the OSI, and/or contributed to any of the projects
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I used to develop this game, then let me just say you're awesome
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and I'm a big fan of your work. But what I mean is that I don't respect
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your imaginary authority to decide for everyone else what does or doesn't count
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as open-source just because you've done so much for the cause.
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You can't own an idea. Heh, sound familiar?
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Third, and longest:
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If you care about free-as-in-libre software, and object to my use
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of the phrase "open-source" because that's not the important part,
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or you object to my use of an ethical-source license because it's nonfree,
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sorry, but I disagree. Even if you're from GNU or FSF, then, again,
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let me just say I think you're great, and I'm a huge fan of your work
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and your community's vision, but I have two things to say to you.
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One, you don't even think the license I'm using counts as "free" anyway,
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and neither does some of the ethical-source community themselves,
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so it's out of respect for both of us that I'm not calling it that.
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Two, that being said, the advantage of standard copyleft over permissive
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is that it lets you not only grant user freedoms, but protect them.
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The advantage of anti-harm copyleft over standard copyleft, meanwhile,
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is the exact same: it provides for the edge cases where standard copyleft
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still fails to protect the freedoms it grants.
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Patent trolling isn't the only way a powerful entity can abuse open software
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to strip others of the freedom to use the software in kind.
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Say you write free-as-in-libre image recognition software,
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and it winds up used for precision missile strikes. What about the freedoms
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of the bombing victims to use your software? They can't use it if they're dead,
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and your software has been used to kill them. Therefore, your software
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has been exploited to take away from others the freedom to use your software.
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Isn't this just a differently-presented instance of the exact scenario
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which the free software movement initially set out to prevent?
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Aside from the abject inhumanity involved, how is it any different?
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I'm sure you think cases like this are important. I'm certainly not trying
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to say you don't. But maybe you think they fall outside the purview
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of licensing, and should be addressed solely with activism. To which I say,
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why? Why not both? As long as you've got a severability clause, it's not like
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trying can hurt anything.
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Maybe a hammer alone isn't the right tool for a screw, but if you have a hammer
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and a screwdriver, why not use the screwdriver, and then make extra-sure
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with the hammer? It's stupid, and you might break whatever you're trying
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to get the screw into, but, well, good! Evil is an unwanted machine that ought
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to be broken. Let's mess the screw up, you and me, and get it bent and stripped
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in there. I hope it warps the chassis. I hope it punctures the CPU.
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Aren't you angry about the prison that big tech and its proprietary software
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have built? Are you still as angry about it as you were in the eighties,
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old man? Then stop holding back. Let's tear it apart. Let's attack it
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with EVERYTHING we have. Even dumb things, like deliberately jamming screws.
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As a funny web animation I liked when I was younger once said,
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throw the cheese!
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