Free Software and Torpark

[Paolo Palmieri]

> Let  us  not be ambigious about the "users" you are talking about. The
> specific  "users"  you  are talking about are limited by definition to
> only  be  the ones wanting to modify it to include malware/trojans, or
> someone  trying  to  turn it into a commercial application, or an evil
> government  that  does not abide by the universal declaration of human
> rights.  Anyone  who  falls  under  one of those three definitions who
> can't consider it free, I'm not concerned about. To _all_ other users,
> it  is  free  and open source, and they can do what they want with it,
> and modify and distribute it how they please.

It just makes no sense to say "it's free except for..." if you intend 
free as in freedom. It's the same kind of idea of those who think that 
"Tor should be working for everyone except for criminals...".

About the "malware" problem, i just report this quote from the OS 
Definition page on wikipedia:
"Back in the 1980s, some software which was given away had license terms 
that specifically prohibited the police or military of the Government of 
South Africa from using the program because of objections to apartheid. 
While this is a laudable goal, it's not relevant to include it in a 
software license. Beyond which, such organizations might simply ignore 
the restrictions anyway."

> The  distinction you are attempting to make anti-thetical to security.
> Somehow I just can't see my way clear to advocating modification of my
> software  for the use of spyware and commercial competitors. I fail to
> see  what  legitimate  interest  you  or  anyone  else have in keeping
> software  from  being  legally  protected  against  having trojans and
> malware inject into them, and still considering it free.

What if the license was to block criminals from using the program? Would 
you still consider it free? What if the license was to block people that 
commited a crime in the past? What if the license was to block people 
that are more likely to commit a crime for their personal psychological 
background?
Would you still consider it "free"?

> Once  again,  would  anyone else like to see Tor's license add that it
> can't  be  modified  to  have malware, trojans, spyware, etc. injected
> into it?

No.

Paolo