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Any ASP or corporate participant in the FOSS movement who was not scared by our previous looks at the implications of GPLv3 (here and here) should look at the interview with the FSF's Richard Stallman just posted by Forbes (subscription required). He makes perfectly clear that he regards proprietary software as immoral, and that he does not endorse the detente between open sourcers and corporate America whereby proprietary and open source are used in tandem.
In the conclusion, Stallman was asked whether it would be unethical to "liberate" code that was proprietary. His response:
To liberate the code, if it is possible, would not be theft, any more than freeing a slave is theft (which is what the slave owner would surely call it). For those corporate staffers who have hitched their star to someone who does not see a distinction between human slavery and proprietary software -- I seriously suggest you begin thinking about a Plan B.
posted by James DeLong @ 4:46 PM | Software
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