[Fsf-Debian] user freedom also matters for cultural and opinion works [was: Re: Silent here]

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On 11/25/2012 10:13 PM, Bryan Baldwin wrote:

> But modification of expressions of
> opinion and personal views is not needed to preserve user's freedoms
> culturally or technologically. Unlike software, the user's freedom is
> intact with or without permission to modify such works, so long as
> permission to copy and redistribute are preserved.

Sorry, but i don't buy this.  Modern culture (and probably all culture
historically) is deeply reliant on modification and adaptation of
existing cultural material.

Have you ever needed to edit an opinion piece for redistribution (e.g.
publishing a journal article as part of a book of criticism, including
the body of a blog post in an e-mail, or re-targeting a fundraising
appeal for a different audience)?  Have you ever made a work of modern
art that references and is derived from other works (e.g. a mashup
video, a song with samples in it, or a collage)?

These are common, critically-important re-uses of cultural, opinion, and
personal works, and they are not covered by copy and redistribution
permissions alone.  To ensure that the recipient of the work has full
freedom to do what they need with the received material, modification
and redistribution of modifications are both necessary permissions, just
like they are in software.

One of the reasons i'm happy to work with Debian is our commitment to
maintaining those freedoms for all the work in the distribution.  I
would be quite sad if we allowed a package into main with some non-free
parts based on an argument that those non-free parts "aren't software"
and therefore our users don't deserve the same levels of freedom in
their use.

Regards,

	--dkg

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