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Blender Is Free Software

code.blender.org

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Re: Blender Is Free Software

#41

Post by klez »

tokai wrote: post #32
starbugs wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is me allegedly not admiring something related to missing "the" point of the article?

Open source is not Free software. The blog post is about how Blender is firmly behind the GPL and free software, which is in opposition to just having available source code without assured user freedoms.

The actual Open Source Definition is much like the Free Software Definition, in the letter. A source-available license wouldn't be OSI-approved, so it wouldn't technically be open source.

On the legal side, free software and open source could very well be considered sinonyms (if that makes sense). The actual difference is one of attitude and end-goals.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#42

Post by mungoid »

This argument has been going on for a while, but apparently exploded recently.

Im so conflicted about this. I feel like my left brain is fighting my right brain. Or mom and dad are fighting again.

On one hand, I have been a huge blender fan for over a decade and personally would give away anything I developed for it. Even if it were high quality. I am all for this way of doing it. Kind of forcing a level playing field no matter if you are AAA studio or some broke but talented college student making 3d models.

On the other hand I totally get how those add-on devs feel being officially told "Thanks for all your hard work, but if someone takes your add-on and gives it away, it's fine." - These add-on devs can charge users to download the add-on, not for the add-on. I used to believe it wasnt right to charge for the ability to download a 'free' add-on, but after seeing how high quality some of the addons are, I completely feel they deserve some compensation for improving blender even more.

Basically, I don't even know what's right anymore.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#43

Post by ttsda »

klez wrote: post #37
benj111 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say free software, you have to clarify, 'free as in freedom, not as in beer', libre doesn't have that double meaning.

Libre doesn't have a meaning at all, in English, so you'll have to explain that as well. In other languages that I know there is no such problem because the two meanings of "free" are clearly disambiguated by two different words.

The point is: with 'free', people might think they know what it means (it doesn't cost any money), 'libre' is context-specific.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#44

Post by zarify »

frutiger wrote: post #36
Jedd wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I considered this position some years ago, but concluded in the time it takes to explain that libre is a word from another language that means 'free in the sense of speech, not beer', I could just say I'm using the word free in the sense of speech, not beer. These days I don't think the problem is the use of the ostensibly ambiguous word 'free', so much as that people (generic) don't really value freedom (or privacy)…

What about “freedom software“? I know it’s grammatically incorrect but it sends the right message.

Speaking as an Australian, a “Freedom” prefix makes it sound like yet another cheesy American grab at patriotism.

(This may come across as snark, but it seriously isn’t. “Freedom” anything has been polluted, IMHO)

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#45

Post by mplanchard »

mbrock wrote: post #35
soulofmischief wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To give the FSF some credit, they would have to go through a ton of hoops and PR changing their name to the LSF if they got behind the idea 100%. :) Not that you are wrong. The "free as in freedom, not as in beer" trope has just gotten too tiresome. It's a losing battle. The only solution is taking control of the language, and Libre helps to achieve this. Going forward I will give some thought to always using this te…

On the other hand freedom is a really nice word that everyone loves whereas "libre" is some fake French or something that you have to try to pronounce with some kind of rolled r like is that really going to succeed in the American marketplace of ideas

It isn’t fake. Libre is a real french word that means “free to do [something]” or “free from [something],” along with a few other meanings.

I do think the pronunciation issue is going to hamper its adoption, though. If it’s pronounced as it is in French, it’s very similar to how we say the zodiac sign “libra,” but if you don’t know it’s french, it could easily be Spanish/Italian/Latin and be pronounced “leebray.”

The fact that it’s not an easy word to know how to pronounce means that people who have only read it will be hesitant to use it in conversation or public speech.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#46

Post by chrisseaton »

lozenge wrote: post #40
chrisseaton wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an area of open legal debate, with a spectrum of what it means to be using an API and what constitutes a derived work.

From what I can see, Blender is trying to pretend it's a hard-and-fast rule, and they are requiring addon authors to label their work as open source to sell on their store.

> From what I can see, Blender is trying to pretend it's a hard-and-fast rule

Well yeah it's a debate - I guess this is their side of the debate. Arguing for something isn't 'pretending'.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#47

Post by CrazyStat »

zarify wrote: post #44
frutiger wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about “freedom software“? I know it’s grammatically incorrect but it sends the right message.

Speaking as an Australian, a “Freedom” prefix makes it sound like yet another cheesy American grab at patriotism. (This may come across as snark, but it seriously isn’t. “Freedom” anything has been polluted, IMHO)

Sounds like Australia needs some Freedom(TM).

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#48

Post by dmos62 »

neilv wrote: post #18

I try to say libre software rather than Free Software , and I wish the FSF would back the libre term fully. When RMS is giving a speech, he has an opportunity to expound on what's now wordplay about "free software", to a captive audience that's perhaps already receptive or prepared to listen. But low-level grassroots advocacy opportunities often happen in contexts in which people are talking for some other purpose, a…

Isn't it fascinating that the English language doesn't have a distinction between the social meaning of free and the economic, in that these meanings are meshed into the same word?

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#49

Post by jlgaddis »

opencl wrote: post #9
Jonnax wrote: post #4

Can someone provide some context for this post? Are there calls to change Blender's license? Are add-on developers violating GPL? The post mentions that a bridge between open source and proprietary needs to be open source but the add-on itself doesn't? Is it just a "how dare you sell products closed source products on top of blender?" The business model of providing support is all well and good but it's just one. If…

Somebody recently launched a new site "Blender Depot" which hosts a bunch of Blender add-ons and provides a batch install feature. Some of the add-ons on this site are commercial plugins available for sale by their authors. All Blender plugins have to be GPL so this sort of redistribution is legal but some of these authors have been rather upset about it. So a large argument ensued on the Blender forums about the GPL…

Sounds similar to the argument about WordPress, third-party plugins, and the GPL from a while back.

Re: Blender Is Free Software

#50

Post by richardw »

neilv wrote: post #18

I try to say libre software rather than Free Software , and I wish the FSF would back the libre term fully. When RMS is giving a speech, he has an opportunity to expound on what's now wordplay about "free software", to a captive audience that's perhaps already receptive or prepared to listen. But low-level grassroots advocacy opportunities often happen in contexts in which people are talking for some other purpose, a…

Maybe if they'd called it freedom software?
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