[Libre-soc-dev] Finishing off the grant: gigabit crypto router 2021-02-052

Cesar Strauss cestrauss at gmail.com
Thu Apr 18 14:20:42 BST 2024


Hi Luke,

On 04/18/2024 02:57, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton via Libre-soc-dev wrote:

> knowing that they are engaging in theft i don't believe it is
> a good idea (violation of the Charter) to give them more
> technology to steal.

I don't think we need to stop writing free software (or free hardware
designs) because some assumed unethical actor could benefit from it 
(even if RED have made it clear they have no intention to be one).

As far as I know, the Four Freedoms of the FSF, and the LGPL (our chosen 
license), do not discriminate against who uses the work (ethical or 
unethical), so maybe our Charter shouldn't as well.

For instance (as a distant analogy, not this case), it is common 
knowledge that there are some known GPL violators out there, that 
unfairly benefit from free software (e.g. the Linux kernel). Even so, 
people don't stop working on those projects, even if it does benefit 
these assumed unethical actors.

You have to think whether the benefits of our work, for Humanity, is 
worth the sacrifice.

The World at Large needs our project, as evidenced by people wanting to 
work on it, and institutions willing to fund it.

Regards,

Cesar



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