Re: "Open Web Platform" versus "Web Platform" Re: Netflix HTML5 player in IE 11 on Windows 8.1

On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Matt Ivie <matt.ivie@gmail.com> wrote:
> But simply stating as "not open source" is what is confusing the issue.

Which is why I've tried to use expressions like “does not come (in all
countries) with full freedoms one would expect from Free Software
under the definition of Free Software”. Framing things as “Open
Source” or “not Open Source” and then debating whether being Open
Source is strictly a matter of copyright license misses the point. For
practical purposes, having non-copyright encumberances such as
actively enforced patents or having to have keys signed by a certain
entity leads to lacking (some of) the freedoms you are supposed to get
with Open Source software or Free Software. Having software under a
blessed copyright license is little comfort if you can’t actually
exercise the relevant freedoms.

One might argue that you get more useful freedoms with x264 than with
a C code archive of a CDM without robustness certification, but in
both cases you don’t get to usefully exercise the full range of
freedoms that you are supposed to get with Free Software.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@hsivonen.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Received on Thursday, 4 July 2013 06:16:23 UTC