Arch Linux

Shadowsurge

Member

Registered: 2007-11-13

Posts: 14

The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

Many linux distributions release their documentation under various licenses such as the GPL or GFDL license, both of which allow free use and/or modification of the code (to some degree at least). However, various official portals for those distributions still lock down the rights of community members to give advice relating to , or advocate for, certain actions, which while perfectly possible and legal, are frowned upon by the administrators. For example, Ubuntu's Forums are owned by Canonical and are maintained for the discussion of issues relating to a free operating system, yet it's not an uncommon site to see people banned for giving advice about how to create a root login.

So my question for all the legally minded Arch users: Shouldn't the use of a free software license prevent the prohibition of modification, or the discussion of modification?

Abelian

Member

Registered: 2008-04-23

Posts: 63

Re: The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

Isn't ubuntuforums completely independent of canonical?

peart

Member

From: Kanuckistan

Registered: 2003-07-28

Posts: 510

Re: The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

Isn't ubuntuforums completely independent of canonical?

According to who.is, ubuntuforums.org is owned by Canonical.

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

Something that is almost, but not quite completely unrelated to the topic:

http://www.metagovernment.org/wiki/Main_Page

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barjo

Member

Registered: 2006-02-20

Posts: 33

Re: The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

Shouldn't the use of a free software license prevent the prohibition of modification, or the discussion of modification?

You can publish whatever you want, but canonical has the right to choose what they publish on their own websites.
Free software is not about letting everyone impose their view on how to manage a project, but if you're unhappy with a project policy, it gives you the power to fork.

Last edited by barjo (2008-08-13 11:02:40)

peets

Member

From: Montreal

Registered: 2007-01-11

Posts: 936

Website

Re: The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

Something that is almost, but not quite completely unrelated to the topic:

http://www.metagovernment.org/wiki/Main_Page

I'd never plugged it yet. Good job! Gotta go check if they've made any progress.

OT: I've never been to the Ubuntu forums, but I've been to the Arch ones. I've seen some discussions get discouraged and even closed. People were giving ideas. The reason these threads were closed or discouraged is beccause the discussions were a lot more about whining than about providing any useful insight. The software that makes up Arch is free. That doesn't mean anyone can waste this forum space saying anything: I think it's right to moderate useless and boring discussions out of these forums. I can modify the linux kernel all I want, but my patch won't make it to the official release unless it's actually useful.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

yet it's not an uncommon site to see people banned for giving advice about how to create a root login.

Wow, that's stupid.

I know some experienced and long term Linux users who work as root. You can wave your hands as much as you like, but it's a very workable and convenient setup. I'm sure there's many here who do as well, though they don't publicise it.

Heck, I've set sudo/su to passwordless for my user multiple times in the past myself. Convenient, and still has the separation that helps avoid trashing your system. Nowadays my sudo just has a really long timeout.

*shrug*

James

(not that I advocate running as root, etc, do what works for you)

Last edited by iphitus (2008-08-13 07:31:33)

Obi-Lan

Member

From: Finland

Registered: 2007-05-23

Posts: 179

Re: The implications of open source licenses on Linux community policies

I'd suppose that you can do what do you want on your own website/forum. If somebody doens't like it, they can always build their own forum. I know one forum where moderators sometimes just deletes offensive/really stupid/illegal topics but thats their forum.