Note that "really free" is a term we invented, it is not a well known way to call these sort of software, which is most of the time called "free software under a BSD-style/permissive license".
Our opinion is that software should be free, but should be even more free than what is required by the free software definition. They should be "really free".
By "really free software", we mean:
With this definition, programs licensed under a BSD-style licence or in the public domain are "really free". But programs licensed under the GNU GPL and the GNU LGPL are not (they are "free software" but not "really free software") as the LGPL only complies with A and C and the GPL only complies with A.
Why? Because the LGPL and GPL requires that (L)GPL licensed code only be included in (L)GPL licensed code. This violates B. The GPL (but not the LGPL), when used for libraries, also requires that programs using them be GPL licensed. That violates C.
The strengh of free software comes from the fact that it is based on cooperation, not competition. It is possible to exchange code between free software projects. But this is sometimes made impossible by the "copyleft" licenses, as they prevent using code licensed under them to be included in projects using an other license. The libraries licensed under the GPL (not LGPL) license are even a worse case: they cannot be used at all in non-GPL projects.
We think that free code should be includable in any other program, no matter the license this other program uses. Of course, this would also allow proprietary projects to include your "really free" code, and you may not want it. But you have to choose between allowing only GPL/LGPL projects to use your code, or allowing any projet to use it no matter if this latter uses copyleft free software (GPL/LGPL), "really free software" (BSD, public domain) or proprietary.
More info of this page: List of free software licenses.
$Id: rf.cgi 171 2008-02-03 18:47:47Z almacha $
This page is in the public domain. You can copy, modifiy and redistribute it freely.
Available languages: