[ale] Open-source software license manager

[Jim Popovitch]

On Fri, 2007-06-22 at 13:46 -0400, George Carless wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 22, 2007 at 01:26:03PM -0400, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> > On Fri, 2007-06-22 at 12:57 -0400, George Carless wrote:
> > > Well, license management typically implies restrictions on use which are 
> > > antithetical to the nature of free software, right?  
> > 
> > I think you are misguided.  "Free" has many facets.  Even the GPL, from
> > certain angles, limits your "freedom". 
> 
> I'm not especially interested in getting into a terminology war, 
> here, but I do think that it's pretty evident that license 
> management software is at odds with virtually every facet of 
> "freedom" that is out there:

You live in a free country that requires you to have a license to drive.
Granted it's not software, but it emphasizes my point that freedom
depends on the person's vantage point.

I do understand what you are saying wrt Open Source.. However, perhaps
you don't realize that there are Open Source applications that have
usage restrictions, some of them enforced by license managers, dongles,
hardware, inspections, etc.

-Jim P.