[U-Boot] U-book and GPLv3? (fwd)

Richard Stallman
2009-06-25T12:30:29Z

> You have a strange definition of freedom - for you it is limited to the
> provider of the devices not to the users of the devices. I guess this
> is what this all boils down to.

No, it is "let the device providers and the users who have *chosen* to
use those devices sort it out themselves, *I'm* not restricting anyone".

More precisely stated, it's "I'm not restricting anyone, and if
someone else is, I don't care." The difference here is between
defending freedom and standing aside while it gets lost.

Leaving the powerful few and the weak divided many to "sort it out" is
predictably likely to lead to bad results. (That is why consumer
protection law exists -- because a market without regulation is
dangerous. This is also why financial industry regulation exists, and
if the powerful had not sabotaged it, we wouldn't have the current
economic downturn.)