[OpenFontLibrary] Site terminology: Free/Open/Libre

Schrijver eric at authoritism.net
Wed May 13 01:41:02 PDT 2009


>
> I feel strongly that "open" is also confusing because it doesn't bring
> to mind the primary goal, freedom, and this has concrete disadvantages
> like not publishing source files.


Well I disagree to that,
I think ‘Open’ is much more nice, as it suggests inclusiveness.

I only believe freedom exists as something individuals can seek to  
attain.
The whole ‘free as in freedom’ discourse to me is telling other people  
what is best for them.
That’s why I don’t believe in it:
I feel it threatens my personal space by saying how I do things is not  
right.

It is not that I am uninformed waiting to enlightened, I simple choose  
to use both free and non-free software and attribute no higher moral  
standing to either of them.

The FSF discourse is authoritarian and patriarchical because it  
creates dichotomies, right and wrong, free and non-free. Making  
distinctions like that is the basis for being not nice to other people.

We make these distinctions all the time, because that’s how we  
function, but I really believe that being able to transcend your own  
binary judgments forms the basic of ethics.

The promise of foss licenses for me lies in exactly the opposite  
direction:
The fact that they are open ended.

That you say, well I am probably not able to see the whole picture,  
but it is likely someone else will find a use for my work I could not  
come up with myself.

Instead of telling the world they are wrong, you tell the world the  
world is bigger than you.


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