19 Feb
2020
19 Feb
'20
5:04 a.m.
On Feb 18, 2020, at 1:51 PM, Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
As Ted saids, I'll give the Debian folks credit for naming it, but the idea really,
really goes back to the early manufacturers and the early community.
FSF was a reaction to the manufacturers taking away something that some people thought
was their 'birth right.'
Used to be that you would get schematics with your electrical or
electronic appliance. I used these to repair a few things, some
times by improvising. IIRC even the original IBM PC came with
schematics.
Given that experience, I felt that paid for software should
come with sources so that when something goes wrong you can
figure out what happened and may be find a way around it. I
had no problem trying to "use the source" but first they had
to provide it; the real documentation! If in the original
vendor goes out of business or decides to stop supporting a
product you bought, you're not stuck. Just as the original
Tektronix oscilloscopes continue being useful.
I do believe this should be a 'birth right'. If this was
always provided, RMS might not have come up with the copyleft!
This is a separate issue from giving away your own software
with sources or controlling what others can do with the sources
you gave away, or paying or being paid to produce such s/w.