Re: [GNU-linux-libre] [libreplanet-discuss] [Dev] [consensus][due: 2016-06-13]: New version for Parabola Social Contract

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

If you so just care for the license and not for the complete and
corresponding source of the cultural works, then perhaps you're not
talking about free culture... But about something else. Unless of
course, the pending draft of the Definition of Free Cultural Works is
approved as it is (without the requirement for the complete and
corresponding source, or without the requirement for the source to be in
a "free software-friendly" format).

But that's a different topic.

In any case, I told this once to people (at #fsf and #gnu) that
questioned me as to why I'm not a free culture activist, and I'll tell
so again here:

We must establish a priority list of activism. "Will the free software
movement accept projects which follow the Definition of Free Cultural
Works?" Yes! Why not?

However, if following the Definition of Free Cultural Works turns out to
be the priority, we run the risk of not focusing on the areas that need
action the most.

There is a reason as to why non-functional data must at least guarantee
the freedom to share original copies (I'm discarding the exception
described in the GNU FSDG, where it must guarantee freedom 2 entirely).
There is a reason as to why the free software movement isn't to picky
about it.

I can't tell you for sure what is the reason, but I can point you to
what I have found out so far that could be the reason for that:

It all boils down to asking "What is more immediate?", "What is the
first thing that society needs to touch to accomplish it's tasks?".

We have a long way to go. Thanks to Open Source Initiative, it's
Definition and proponents, that since 1998 are not helping us at the
most important part: education/awareness of the true value of free
software (the four freedoms, of course). And we have lots of non-free
JavaScript to free (and lots of websites to give feedback on the
non-free JS issue too); lots of software documentations/tutorials on
text/audio/video to free too (I once saw a book about GIMP without
license! I see video tutorials about Blender and/or Inkscape without a
license!); and hardware to get free drivers/modules and firmware for;
and also free color profiles to get or make (otherwise no graphic/press
printer can be used in freedom).

To give you some comfort: I'm not a free culture activist, and this we
all know by now. However, I try to make my cultural works as free as
possible. "Why?" Because I know that, when the time comes, when there's
enough progress on the "functional data battle field", we might as well
have to look for the "non-functional data battle field" in order to free
it too, and when this time comes, I'll do my best to support free
culture. But first, we must win the fight for a free and just/fair
digital society.

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