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List:       gphoto-devel
Subject:    [gphoto-devel] Re: Introduction and Comments
From:       Richard Stallman <rms () santafe ! edu>
Date:       2000-08-19 1:25:43
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    It was my impression that it was the intent to use the GPL for frontend.
    It was to merely use the LGPL for the backend (camera drivers).

If only part of gPhoto uses the LGPL, I would need to know more
details about what the various parts do, in order to determine
the precise implications of this alternative.

    I fail to see how they won't become "Free" with the LGPL. The only
    thing I can see that is advantageous with the GPL over the LGPL is to
    force the frontend to be free.

    This benefits everyone since more code is available, but it doesn't
    increase the freedom of existing code.

Copylefting a piece of code doesn't make that code any "more free"
than if it were not copylefted.  But it ensures that every user of the
code has the freedoms that make for free software, and it helps make
other code free.  So copylefting one piece of software leads to
increased freedom for software users, by making *other* software free
which wouldn't have been.

    FWIW, I consider myself a part of the "Open Source Movement" rather than
    the "Free Software Movement" if forced to make a distinction.

Your help is still welcome if you want to offer it.  But our decisions
in the Free Software Movement are likely to differ from what the Open
Source Movement would do, because we recognize goals and values they
don't support.

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