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Re: Free Software and Torpark



Let  us  not be ambigious about the "users" you are talking about. The
specific  "users"  you  are talking about are limited by definition to
only  be  the ones wanting to modify it to include malware/trojans, or
someone  trying  to  turn it into a commercial application, or an evil
government  that  does not abide by the universal declaration of human
rights.  Anyone  who  falls  under  one of those three definitions who
can't consider it free, I'm not concerned about. To _all_ other users,
it  is  free  and open source, and they can do what they want with it,
and modify and distribute it how they please.

It just makes no sense to say "it's free except for..." if you intend free as in freedom. It's the same kind of idea of those who think that "Tor should be working for everyone except for criminals...".


About the "malware" problem, i just report this quote from the OS Definition page on wikipedia:
"Back in the 1980s, some software which was given away had license terms that specifically prohibited the police or military of the Government of South Africa from using the program because of objections to apartheid. While this is a laudable goal, it's not relevant to include it in a software license. Beyond which, such organizations might simply ignore the restrictions anyway."


The  distinction you are attempting to make anti-thetical to security.
Somehow I just can't see my way clear to advocating modification of my
software  for the use of spyware and commercial competitors. I fail to
see  what  legitimate  interest  you  or  anyone  else have in keeping
software  from  being  legally  protected  against  having trojans and
malware inject into them, and still considering it free.

What if the license was to block criminals from using the program? Would you still consider it free? What if the license was to block people that commited a crime in the past? What if the license was to block people that are more likely to commit a crime for their personal psychological background?
Would you still consider it "free"?


Once  again,  would  anyone else like to see Tor's license add that it
can't  be  modified  to  have malware, trojans, spyware, etc. injected
into it?

No.

Paolo