Switch to GPL now

Copyright laws are among the most significant in shaping the world as we know it. Copyright laws are not about entertainment, but rather, about thought control.

As a species we are standing on a crossroads never before faced by any species on the planet.

I argue that the single most significant contributor to our supremacy over this planet is our capacity for meme-exchange. We have taken mammalian peer-learning to an unprecedented level. The fact that every member of our species frequently expends great energy in the singular business of meme-aquisition, and that we spend just as much energy in the business of meme-distribution, serves as a testament to its survival-utility and evolutionary effectiveness.

Are we to embrace this freedom, allow the currents of information to flow unrestrained, and see where our exponentially-increasing rate of technological evolution (which, from a more metaphysical perspective, is not so different from our genetic evolution) takes us?

Or are we, on the other hand, going to lock ourselves down and block this flow, all in the name of preserving the economic prosperity of a select few?

Is our future one of wild change and uncertainty, or one of regularity and control?

You people are misunderstanding us. When we talk about free software, we are referring to freedom. RMS has identified four specific freedoms that one must have in order to remain as a free and upstanding member of society http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html .

The freedoms that we value specifically allows us to maintain our sovereignty (our right to help ourself) and allows us to live as upstanding citizens (our right to share computer software). When citizens lack the right to practise any of these freedoms, the citizen cannot say that she is living in freedom: how one live in freedom when one is forbidden to help oneself or forbidden to live as a good neighbour.

This sort of freedom works only the basis of mutual respect. In the case of computer software, this means that users should possess the four freedoms of free software. This also means that users must have access to the related computer software source code.

The GNU General Public License is a free software simply because ALL users of the software licensed under the GPL possess the four freedoms. The simplest way to maintain compliance with the GPL is to publish source code together with the binary program (as they are two different forms of exactly the same thing) AND inform the recipient about their rights AND the distributor should not impose restrictions that will take restrict the recipient's rights. It is really that simple: publish the source code together with the binary, let them know of their rights, do not take actions to prevent them from practising their rights.