Copyleft Without Coercion · Saturday June 25, 2011 by Crosbie Fitch

said 3367 days ago : Thanks again for such a wonderful stream of crystal-clear thoughts. Would have never thought of the implications of coercion on the GPL. I think this is the first time I read about the ncGPL, and there may be a good reason: I’ve googled a little about it and couldn’t find any other reference to ncGPL besides this very same article. Not sure what the plans are, but… are you planning about formalizing this proposed ncGPL into a proper license to be used by developers? It seems to me that it could be a great way to massively spread the way of thinking promoted by Cultural Liberty and help others to think in terms of copyleft. I wonder what Richard Stallman would think of ncGPL, as it seems to take the fight for free sofware and liberties one step further.

Crosbie Fitch said 3367 days ago : Thanks Julián, The ncGPL is just a hypothetical variation of the GPL. Possibly it might influence GPLv4, or failing that GPLv5, but because this article is heresy to copyleft dogma (that ‘open source’ is only open because of a license obligation to publish source), I doubt this article is going to interest anyone except those who’ve already recognised that power to compel others to publish source code is not exactly natural. I published this article primarily to prepare an argument on the matter with Mike Linksvayer. We’d exchanged words on Identica and it was agreed more explanation was required on my part. See: identi.ca/conversation/72676222

said 3365 days ago : One of the things that particularly bothers me about licensing, libertarian or otherwise, is that it seems designed to be continue forever. In the first few centuries of copyright, at least the terms were finite and so works would eventually be freed. What concerns me now is that we may be heading into future of perpetual licenses, with nothing ever again going into the public domain. As a non-programmer, my concern with closed source code is that can turn my work into ransomeware. If I purchase software to edit video, say, and edit all my home movies in it using the proprietary format, my work is now locked inside that proprietary format. Which means: I can’t take my partially edited file and work with it in different editing software,

if the company goes out of business, or

simply decides to stop supporting it It’s all very well to say that no one should be compelled to publish sourcecode, but I disagree. Once the software is sold and out there, it must be open and accessible for consumer protection. In the pre-digital world, I could cut my film on a Moviola or a Steenbeck, but was not locked into a relationship with a single manufacturer. Closed source puts consumers, artists and the culture at the mercy of manufacturers.

Crosbie Fitch said 3363 days ago : Hi Laurel, If you have a problem with the term of licenses, you have a problem with the term of copyright. And as only licenses can restore the liberties that copyright suspends, if you hope for liberty you’d better hope that such licenses last as long as the copyright (in some cases they don’t). As for obscure file-formats, these are a further epiphenomenon of copyright. If you can sell copies, then not only don’t you need to sell the source, but you don’t need to sell documentation of the file-format. Whereas, without copyright you have to sell the source (if you want to get paid for writing it), and if the source is published, the file-format is far easier to understand and document – moreover, the person paid for writing the source, is likely to get paid far more if they document the file-format. Without copyright you might feel you still need the power to break people’s doors down, severely fine them or imprison them if they publish a binary without source, but such power is unnatural and unethical. This article attempts to explain why such power is not needed, indeed why such power could even be removed from the GPL without affecting people’s incentive to publish source code with their GPL derivatives. I suggest that, without copyright, the civilised approach and ethical incentive is to offer software engineers money in exchange for the publication of their work. Do not make it a crime for them to publish a free binary demo of their work in advance of being paid for their work. Similarly, don’t fine musicians for releasing a free MP3 demo file in advance of selling the score and FLAC versions of each component track of their digital master. Demand only your liberty back, don’t deny an artist the privacy that enables them to sell their unpublished work. If you don’t like closed source then you don’t like copyright. Don’t make the error of inferring that an ephiphenomenon of copyright warrants a new unnatural, power to compel disclosure. Just abolish copyright. Don’t replace one instrument of injustice with another.

said 3363 days ago : Actually, Crosbie, I’m not keen on either closed source or copyright. But there is a world of difference difference between: (1) a software engineer publishing “a free binary demo” (or a musician publishing “a free binary demo” of their work) prior to selling a copy of their work, and, (2) a software engineer selling me a copy of their work with the source code locked up (or an RIAA corporation selling me anything locked behind DRM). A publisher of anything generates income by selling copies. No copyright law anywhere in the world does anything to restrain any publisher from giving away free copies, in whole or in part. Nor would they. After all, that has long been one of the primary means a publisher has of promoting their wares. Copyright uses the force of law to compel restrictions on people’s freedom to enjoy cultural works, just as closed source uses obscurity to compel restrictions on people’s freedom to enjoy software works. [The same software publishers who lock up their source code tend to avail themselves of copyright law and/or software patents to add the force of law to their assault on their customers’ liberty.] I am in complete agreement with your statement that “It has to be recognised that people have a right to privacy and if there’s anything they don’t want to make public, they don’t have to make it public.” Frankly, I would never advocate compelling software engineers to publish. Like novelists, software engineers are always free to write their code and hold it close, never publishing it at all. But, of course, like novelists, once software engineers elect to publish their software, they have themselves ventured outside of the private domain. When I purchase a copy of a book that is “protected” by copyright, I at least have access to its entire contents. The effect of closed source software is akin to selling a copy of a novel, and then, after the customer has paid the agreed price for it, charging the customer a second time for the key to the final chapter. Effectively making closed source code ethically worse than copyright. Most consumers are not aware we are being sold a pig in a poke. Disingenuous sales practices fool customers into believing we are purchasing software when in fact, thanks to the most outrageous legal legerdemain, we are merely licensing it. Even further, most users would never dream that it is not within our rights to use such software as we see fit, and are unaware they are legally restricted to using such software only according to the dictates of the publisher (who may, or may not, be the software engineer). Consumer protection laws must at minimum compel a warning to inform consumers what they are getting. Software may be nearly universally adopted but neither software nor licensing is by any means universally understood by users. In the absence of such warnings, customers are essentially being defrauded. Society must be protected, particularly when the pace of innovation unfairly disadvantages human beings. Still, society allows unfettered infringement of personal liberty only at its own peril, which is why I am disinclined to the idea of legal compulsion beyond consumer warnings. Education and freely available information will take up the slack. Even without such warnings and education, human beings are adaptable, which is why, as more people are becoming aware of the way closed source software infringes on their liberty, more and more are abandoning that Sisyphean treadmill. If you give me something, like a “free demo,” it is conceivable that there might be strings attached. If you sell me something, even a copy, any imposition of restrictions, by either legal or physical means infringes on my liberty.

said 3362 days ago : Crosbie, I am not sure you are taking into account the TIVO’s of the world. There are certainly current developers of derivatives of GPL software that do not publish their sources and other who take other steps to prevent you from running changed sources even if you have them. It is of course one thing to have certain freedoms restored in a generally non-free game and another to have a free game restored.

Crosbie Fitch said 3362 days ago : Good point Drew. However, where the GPL fails, the ncGPL cannot do better. Expensive devices (Tivos or games consoles as opposed to binary files) with which binaries are included should still be treated as expensive device plus free software demo (per the ncGPL the binary can still be freely copied). The source is unpublished because the developer hasn’t yet been paid for it. Offer them an equitable amount of money for the source and per the ncGPL you are at liberty to share it. If I sell you a black box that does something useful, then without copyright or patent, that box cannot constrain your liberty. Sure, reverse engineering is hard, especially without the source code and designs, but you remain free to do it. That I could make that task easier by giving you further information still doesn’t actually impinge upon your freedom. Alternatively, if I’d bound you with manacles and omitted to provide you with the 4 digit code to the combination lock, then I’ve bound you, but that’s because the manacles constrain your freedom, not because I’ve omitted to give you the code. Not providing information to someone does not by itself impinge upon their liberty. I’ve pointed out this error in the ‘four freedoms’ before. See The Seduction of Social Sanctity

Jose_X said 3352 days ago : Hey Crosbie, you drew me here from an article by Nina Paley where she wonders why some free software developers tend to make exceptions for opinion writings in what licenses they use and in rights they give (as if to preserve the integrity of opinions when they believe in allowing source code modifications). www.techdirt.com/art… What I tried to explain in a comment there, as relates to this article, was that trade secrets in software are not easy to decipher and can lead to significant “harm”. There are security implications, and it is a path to significant lock in. A major reason to hide source is to facilitate a monopoly. It’s not that competitors want to know roughly how your software works in order to compete, is that potentially without exact duplication (bug for bug), they are at a significant disadvantage in terms of interfacing in important areas, including by understanding precisely the wide range of created user documents or data. A small misunderstanding (think of “Place paragraph in blue, 12 inches down” vs. “Place half of paragraph in red, 56 feet down”), can lead to horrendous results, even if the competing software is otherwise 10X better. We have network effects to deal with at a level that don’t exist for ordinary consumer goods. You can even create extremely complex protocols or security back doors where the details are changed in real-time over the Internet (eg, where the details aren’t known until run time when the missing key bits are downloaded, encrypted and time spread). The evidence can then be removed. It took a long time to decipher the Rosetta Stone. How much easier would it have been if we simply had a manual to the language? The issue with software is not identical to this, but, there are costs, like with any other reverse engineering, and one where the changes may occur very frequently (and compilers can take a tiny change in source code, in logic, and produce a very different iteration of the compilation because the mappings are many to many not one-to-one). Imagine the Rosetta language changing every hour as we are trying to “crack” the code (of the moment). [some more…] As I mentioned on that thread, I think without copyright, we would come closer to cracking the codes or at least to better determine that the code is changing a lot. The real solution is to have people avoid the monopolies; however, software’s effect is not something we see, and lock in and network effects take hold and create unfair market places. Calling something unfair is a judgement call, but just as brand and past good experiences lead people to avoid many restaurants and go to particular ones, the problem with software is that it has network effects (“everyone” goes to the same ones) and also it really is easier to change food restaurants because you don’t have to invest a lot in learning the new foods or in interfacing with existing foods you’ve eaten in the past. My decision on copyright: I would like no copyright (as you do) but not if it would only apply to software. My view is that society would gain so much overall from no copyright (or a weak version) that it would make up for risks in software. Note, that the GPLv2 is “flawed” in at least 4 important ways. Patents are not resolved. We have “tivoization” (v3 issues). We have online hosting companies (AGPL issues). The copyleft creates inflexibility. These problems make it easier to agree that no copyright across the board (culture including) would be the best.