Bo Morgan<p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://social.linux.pizza/@swashberry" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>swashberry</span></a></span> Again, thanks having the conversation. You didn't exactly answer my question, which was:</p><p>"Can you explain why copyleft, i.e. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GPLv3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GPLv3</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LGPLv3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LGPLv3</span></a>, & <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AGPLv3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AGPLv3</span></a>, is fundamentally flawed for securing the freedoms described in the GPL text?"</p><p>It sounds like you have problems with copyright in general, and you believe that using copyrights for anything is against your concept of freedom, which you didn't define.</p><p>The GPL text defines 4 freedoms, which I've reproduced here:</p><p>"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things."</p><p>You've seemed to confuse the concept of "user" with "developer". The user of the software is not necessarily the developer, or the person who could potentially make money from selling proprietary software. Instead of relying on benevolent donations of free software, the GPL legally enforces the rights of users, in the sense of the people who actually use the program, not those who might sell the program to users who can afford to pay for it.</p><p>The GPL makes sure that the users who learn to use one version of a piece of software won't wake up and need to buy the next version, which is suddenly proprietary. It protects the users in perpetuity, using the law.</p><p>It sounds like your reasoning might be general enough to be extended to laws in general. Your argument sounds analogous to someone who doesn't like capitalism so they want to get rid of money. To be anti-capitalist, doesn't mean you need to get rid of money. You just charge progressive taxes that distribute the money more equally.</p><p>Copyrights (and money) are legal tools that we can use to build a more equitable democracy based on distributed free and open source software. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/floss" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>floss</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/democracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>democracy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/gpl" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gpl</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/gplv3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gplv3</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lgplv3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>lgplv3</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/agplv3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>agplv3</span></a></p>