> I care very much about people making their own decisions in their own lives (e.g. LGBT, abortion etc)
Totally with you on this
(and that's why I think the software industry should be producing free software for people. So they can make their own decisions without depending on their original providers. Of course, free software is not a sufficient condition to this.)
> I kinda just have given up on the law in general.
Okay, but I hope you'll understand many of us don't see this as an option.
> I don't think the GPL is very good at this. [...]
I don't see how end users have more freedoms with BSD programs and how the GPL comes with more strings attached for the user (who doesn't intend to build proprietary software - of course I'm against this so if you see this as an attached string, I see this string in good light).
> I view GPL more as protection of the authors, not the end users.
I think you are wrong on this. The user owes nothing to the author of a GPL program. They can modify it without contributing back. The authors are not guaranteed to see the improvements to their code, also users are guaranteed the freedoms that come with free software, even for the derivatives (this is where the GPL shines, in my view, compared to permissive licenses).
Totally with you on this
(and that's why I think the software industry should be producing free software for people. So they can make their own decisions without depending on their original providers. Of course, free software is not a sufficient condition to this.)
> I kinda just have given up on the law in general.
Okay, but I hope you'll understand many of us don't see this as an option.
> I don't think the GPL is very good at this. [...]
I don't see how end users have more freedoms with BSD programs and how the GPL comes with more strings attached for the user (who doesn't intend to build proprietary software - of course I'm against this so if you see this as an attached string, I see this string in good light).
> I view GPL more as protection of the authors, not the end users.
I think you are wrong on this. The user owes nothing to the author of a GPL program. They can modify it without contributing back. The authors are not guaranteed to see the improvements to their code, also users are guaranteed the freedoms that come with free software, even for the derivatives (this is where the GPL shines, in my view, compared to permissive licenses).