In reply to a post by https://wwwtech.de/about on
It is not about tarballs, but about derived work. And if a distribution is a derived work, that is what the dispute is about. The GPL is about freedom, but NOT freedom of the developer. The developer doesn't matter in the view of the GPL. It is all about the freedom of the user. It tries to protect the user from proprietary software; if you release a software under a permissive license one could use it to write proprietary software. Most people I know think that the GPL is about the freedom of use for your β¦
Thatβs what Iβm asking β a distribution is essentially just a tarball β why the hell does a distribution count as a derived work? β½ ΒΏ!β½W H Y β½?!β½?
I know that βuser freedomβ thing. I see how it might appeal to developers, especially when writing apps for end users. Disallowing proprietary software is a cool idea, but not at the cost of infecting permissively licensed software!