On Qua, 2002-05-01 at 12:33, RIBNITZ Robert wrote:
with interest i Iread the proposed amendment/modification to the proposed European Copyright Laws. With horror, I learned that the terms Free Software and Open Source software are more or less used interchangeably.
I don't know what you are talking about. Could you send me an URL ? In any case, I'm answering some of the questions you've posed.
Also, my understanding of Free Software/OSS was that releasing the (modified) code to the community is a requirement, and not an option. In the text it sounds like an option.
It is an option. You are only required to supply the source code to people to which you distribute binaries. But remember that those people have the right to redistribute your work so it may reach the public or some public internet server.
More precisely, I am unclear about the terms Free Software and OPen Source Software. Do you know of any Software that is both open source, and non-free, or that is free, but not Open Source?
For more information on that subject please read http://fsfeurope.org/documents/whyfs.en.html. As for software that is Open Source and is not Free Software check for any software released under APSL (Apple Public Source License). You can see in http://opensource.org/licenses/index.html that OSI recognizes it as a valid Open Source license and in http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/apsl.html why it's not a Free Software license.
Are theses distictions anything else than a political choice?
I hope you can answer that for yourself after reading the references above.