Open-source software is software for which the source code is freely and publicly available. Although open-source software is also called "free software" (see www.fsf.org and www.opensource.org), it is far from free. There are specific licensing agreements that are applicable to such code, which specify the responsibilities of the user of the code.
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bogdanbiv
15 years 49 weeks 17 hours 55 min ago
Article comments
Cite: "Although open-source software is also called "free software" (see www.fsf.org and www.opensource.org), it is far from free."
Although the author neither discourages or encourage the use of free software, he does not really understand the difference between free software and open source.
akf
15 years 49 weeks 12 hours 50 min ago
Another quote
Another quote:
"Incorporating open-source code into proprietary software is especially problematical because a common goal of many of the open-source licenses is to preserve "openness" by requiring that any modified software be redistributed on the same terms as the open-source software and at no charge."
Please tell me one single Open Source project that requires that it is redistributed at no charge.
While there are a lot of truths in the article, they are always mingled with lies, or exaggerations.
aboutblank
15 years 48 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago
"Never ascribe to malice,
"Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence" - Robert Hanlon
I think this guy is confused about some details as opposed to actively spreading lies. We can say he is lying after we bring correction to his attention and he continues to spread the same inaccurate assertions.
akf
15 years 49 weeks 12 hours 46 min ago
The gist of it
And what is he trying to say? That breaching the license of Free Software ist more dangerous, than breaching the license of ... of what exactly?
aboutblank
15 years 48 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago
He mentions that breaching
He mentions that breaching the free software licensing terms would mean breaching copyright law. The gist that I got was that he was warning companies that take free software and fail to abide by the licensing agreement.