@colinsmatt11 >Is copyleft freedom?
Yes, you can use the software in any way you wish, modify the software in any way you wish and/or distribute the software gratis or for a fee provided you distribute the whole program and not half of it (not just the binaries, with the source too), under the same license.

Freedom to take others freedom is not a useful thing to have, as it reduces the amount of freedom, so that should not be given.

>Is permissive freedom?
Many permissive licenses demand acceptance just to use the software, which is less free than the GPLv3 (which allows usage without acceptance), but the rest of the terms are usually reasonable.

Also, most (all?) permissive licenses are terribly written and miss a bunch of things, so in certain cases a program may become nonfree, even if that wasn't the intention.

>Is public domain freedom?
Depends on the country.
In some countries the public domain isn't a thing.

Also, you're not really permitted to sell public domain software, but in practice you can just charge for the storage media or the distribution or bundle it as part of something else.

Public domain software with source code is most often free software, but not always.


>that the 4 freedoms don't cover ranging from DRM
Digital handcuffs are fine provided the 4 freedoms are respected, as you can just remove the handcuffs if you have the source and can modify it.

Digital handcuffs only work as intended if freedoms 1, 2 and 3 aren't respected (via proprietary software and/or tyrant hardware) .

>source code being distributed in undesirable formats
Obfuscated source code is not source code, so it's clear that freedoms 1 and 3 are being violated if that happens.

If the original format is undesirable, that may not be convenient, but the source code has been provided in that case.

>utilisation of proprietary formats to distribute important files
Proprietary formats are only really an issue if freedom 1, 2 and 3 aren't respected (either via proprietary software or patents), as a file is only important if there's a program to read it and if you have a free program that can read the format, there's no problem.


The 4 freedoms do indeed cover everything you mentioned.