@lain "However, if you're going to use these games, you're better off using them on GNU/Linux rather than on Microsoft Windows. At least you avoid the harm to your freedom that Windows would do.
Thus, in direct practical terms, this development can do both harm and good. It might encourage GNU/Linux users to install these games, and it might encourage users of the games to replace Windows with GNU/Linux. My guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than the direct harm"
@lain@lain.com@hfaust@shitposter.world He is does accept the concept of "intellectual property" and is very outspoken about that every time someone mentions it.
@georgia@hfaust he might be against the term but the whole idea of copyleft is based on forcing other people to handle their copies of your code the way that you tell them to via IP law.
@lain@georgia@hfaust Yes and that's because if you do nothing then all is defacto under IP laws that makes everything proprietary from the start thanks to the Bern convention, which he protests.
@mangeurdenuage@georgia@hfaust you can put your code into the public domain or give everyone a license for your code as if IP didn’t exist, that’s not what he does .
@SuperDicq@lain@hfaust Yeah, but it's more like "Copyright, Trademark, Patents are very different laws, and putting them all together is a problem", specially if you're say against software patents (like most of FOSS world is).
Plus the fact that they do not work like property, like abandonware would be 100% legal instead of "illegal but unlikely to get sued" if it truly would work like property.
@hj@lain@hfaust >if you abolish IP/copyright everyone is free to take proprietary software Then that would mean there's not more definition of what is proprietary or copyleft. Just people exchanging stuff between them without limit. And only if there's an established contract between parties then there will be defined what you cannot or do with the software. The GPL does that. It brings back what was lost before the bern convention by using the bern convention.
@lain@hfaust of course he accept and support concept of "intellectual property", copyleft exists on same grounds as copyright - same laws to forbid copying, same laws to maintain copying.
if you abolish IP/copyright everyone is free to take proprietary software but also everyone is free to violate GPL 3736ca56837ff780f8fe84e2cbd141e…
@SuperDicq@hfaust it’s the same, that’s why he thinks that if I add a line of code to emacs and share the result with you on here, I’ll have to share it with everyone.
@hj@lain@hfaust >if you abolish IP/copyright everyone is free to take proprietary software but also everyone is free to violate GPL Or in more proper terms, everybody is free to make truly free as in freedom software with no way of putting restrictions on how you get it or use it.
@lain@lain.com@hfaust@shitposter.world And yes copyleft is a copyright hack. Copyleft by itself is not the end goal of the free software movement, but just a tool that helps achieve that.
In the perfect world, copyright, and thus also copyleft, would not need to exist.
Ideally everyone would simply find nonfree software unethical and nobody would use it. Therefor nobody would try to publish nonfree software in the first place.
Or alternatively, we would make a law that states that all published software should include its source code by default, outside of the domain of a copyright license. As a society we could consider nonfree software as malicious and ban the practice altogether.
You are not required to make your changes to GPL-licensed public.
All you to do is make sure that all the users of your program has access to the source code. You're not required to give the source code to anyone else.
@hj@lain@hfaust > not everyone will share everything Yeah that's ok.
>closest example is chinese copying someone else's PCB and scratching off chips identification so other people can't copy theirs That's not commerce then. It's grifting and people doing so should be removed form society.
@mangeurdenuage@lain@hfaust >That's not commerce then. It's grifting and people doing so should be removed form society.
agree but there would be no law to enforce it, just terrorism, and it works both ways. anarchy is nice on paper until someone with bigger guns shows up to threaten your freedom
@mangeurdenuage@lain@hfaust point being that not everyone will share everything - closest example is chinese copying someone else's PCB and scratching off chips identification so other people can't copy theirs
@SuperDicq@lain@hfaust point being that you HAVE TO. I can't share just binary with a friend, i HAVE TO include sources even if he doesn't ask for them.
the logic is weaponizing something he disagrees with to fight against a system built around it, right? that's always been my understanding of the gpls purpose
Even without copyright law, it is trivial to render software proprietary by providing binaries without the source code.
Even in cases where the software can't be used without the complete corresponding source code, companies worked out how to make software proprietary before copyright applied to software, by demanding the signing of a non-disclosure agreement before source code was provided.
@phnt@lain@SuperDicq@hj@hfaust The AGPLv3 gives permission to modify the software only if those who connect to it over a computer network are offered the modified source code.
You can make the service not be publicly available and require an account login and only offer the source code to those with an account login.
@hj@lain@SuperDicq@hfaust You can keep it completely private as long as someone doesn't come knocking on lain's door and asking for the source. That's the loophole AGPL prevents by saying that if you modify something and put it online, you have to share the source in the same way. Or something like that.
@hj@lain@SuperDicq@hfaust Following the {A}GPLv3, you can just share object code with a friend - such object code just needs to be distributed with a written offer for the source code - whether that already came with the software, or you need to add one (otherwise well it's not free software is it?).
Regardless - nobody cares unless you're doing proprietary things - if the friend is made aware that he just needs to ask for the source code to get it - that's fine.
@phnt@lain@hj@hfaust You can still own the user with proprietary malware that the user doesn't control - even if such software doesn't fall under copyright.
For example, proprietary malware can spy on the user and make sure they aren't doing unwanted copying - with observations likely to be useful for blackmail.
@hj@lain@hfaust Not really, lack of copyright and IP laws would make it so that you can't own a piece of software (or anything non-tangible for that matter). You can't hunt down or blackmail someone for copying your work, because you don't own the work and can't impose any restrictions on who uses your software and how. Essentially what public domain means now. Trying to blackmail in this case would still be the same blackmailing as the law already recognizes.
Unless you are in full anarchy that is, which is something I didn't suggest. But that's off-topic.
@phnt@lain@hfaust ironically maybe not. Everyone would also be free to hunt down and blackmail whomever copied their stuff, even if their stuff is copy of someone else, or not even theirs to begin with.
it's like bullying whomever wrote slash fic with your favorite cartoon's characters who aren't your OTP
Licenses are indeed revocable - although many countries place conditions on such.
The GPL family of licenses are irrevocable provided the license is followed - but the GPLv2 automatically terminates the license forever if the conditions are infringed and the GPLv3 on infringement gives a recovery period in which the violation can be cured (although the copyright holder(s) can instead choose to terminate the license).
@hj@phnt@lain@hfaust Imaginary property never existed and a lack of copyright would result in only a few negative results and primarily positive results.
Companies always add digital handcuffs regardless of the situation.
Bypassing the digital handcuffs on ancient floppy games is illegal due to the DCMA, although unlike to be prosecuted.
@phnt@lain@hfaust i always feel like lack of IP/copyright would mean complete anarchy. Worst comes to worse they start adding even more DRM just to couteract this IP anarchy since there's no enforcement against including DRM in your public domain stuff, like old floppy games with DRM in them
@lain@SuperDicq@hfaust It's also not *necessary* without copyright & patent laws enclosing knowledge and rotting out culture.
(There should be no legal protections on trade secrets. The only protection should be having adequate opsec. No opsec, sucks to be you. Not society's problem.)
Copyleft or rather the GPL (or some explicit notification of the four laws) becomes a statement of intent and social expectation absent copyright.
Then one can further go on to liberate code that hasn't been properly released.
@Suiseiseki@lain@hj@hfaust But I can modify crack, reverse engineer and distribute the software however I want. Or even legally steal the source code if I get access to it. "Proprietary" does not exist in that world.