Re: On the good neutrality of free software

[David Hedlund]

> Then, an answer to Michael McMahon <michael@fsf.org> and J.B.
> Nicholson-Owens <jbn@forestfield.org>:
>
>> If a free software program contains political messages and someone
>> does not agree or want the political messages, they could fork the
>> project and remove unwanted content as it is free software.  This is
>> very different from proprietary software where the four freedoms are
>> not present.  Political programs are not equal to proprietary
>> software. The program in question does not have automatic updates.
>> This is not a licensing issue. 
>
> As you may all already know, a free software license does not suffice
> to make a software free, because the 4 freedoms must not be respected
> only 'de iure' (by law) but also in practice, by not making the
> software impossible or highly inconvenient to redistribute. This
> applies to all potential users, not just those belonging to a specific
> country.
>
A side-note about the legality, there are license exceptions for GNU
GPL-based licenses, see
https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:SPDX_Group#Licenses_with_exceptions