OT - Closing Off An Open-Source Product

[Clark C. Evans]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2001, Chris Watson wrote:
> > Stating what restrictions other people can put is in a contravariant
> > position. The more freedom you want to ensure, the more you have to
> > restrict, and vice versa.
> 
> More nonsensical babble.

Not at all.  Freedom is a propery with built-in duality.

Public domain offers the *greatest* freedom for potential
users of the material, while it affords the *least* freedom
for the author, i.e., they cannot demand royalties
after the product is put into public domain and cannot
thereafter, as in individual, restrict its usage.

Keeping your source code private (aka Private Domain)
offers the *least* freedom for potential users of the
material (they don't have it), while it offers the
*greatest* freedom for the author, they can choose the
complete disposition of the source without restriction.

In between we have various licenses... where the 
creator grants particular freedoms to the users
and retains other freedoms.   Thus, to talk about
more or less freedom, one must consider whose
freedom you are talking about.  Talk about the
GPL or BSD license being "more or less free"
without a class of individuals affected is 
nonsensical babble.  *evil grin*

Kind regards,

Clark