On Sun, Jan 06, 2008 at 01:13:25PM +0530, Karthik Kumar wrote:
quoted text
> On Jan 6, 2008 4:25 AM, Gilles Chehade <gilles@evilkittens.org> wrote:
> > On Sun, Jan 06, 2008 at 01:42:16AM +0530, Karthik Kumar wrote:
> > > > Firmware are not free enough when they have a license that does not
> > > > allow them to be redistributed with the system.
> > > >
> > >
> > > You are talking of free as in freedom and not price, right? If the
> > > whole point was to avoid paying $$$ in OpenBSD, my bad.
> > >
> >
> > What has money to do with this ?
> > You sound like you have issues understanding, so I will make it as simple
> > as I can, please take the time to read a few times, and make sure you get
> > it, before replying to this mail:
> >
> >         - vendor A sells hardware that requires a firmware
> >
> >         - OpenBSD wants to support that hardware and needs the firmware
> >                 to be shipped, say in /etc/firmware/, to have the
> >                 hardware work out of the box
> >
> >         - vendor A says "if a customer wants the firmware, he must go
> >                 to out website and fill a registration form online".
> >
> >         - OpenBSD does not ship the firmware because it is not free
> >                 enough.
> >
> > See ? This is an example, it is unrelated to money, and you still failed
> > to show us ONE point where we don't stick to our goals.
> >
> 
> So registration form = non-free. You failed to prove how it was not
> free. I asked if it required OpenBSD to pay money to a vendor, or the
> issue was about something else besides the money. I don't see the
> registration form being a problem here. Maybe they might simply take
> down your name and address for contact details or whatever. I don't
> see why a registration form must be non-free here.

Yes it is non-free!  Very much so.

I will pertinently refuse to fill out ANY webform unless I am paying for
something.  My personal information is one of my most prized possessions.
Company XYZ that sold (past tense) me a piece of hardware does not need
to know ANYTHING about me.

If I go to a news site and they require me to fill out a form I close
the tab.  I also refuse to click on any web ad as they can track my
information based on my IP address.

See the difference is that you don't care about freedom you care about
gratis.  You are a cheapskate hunting for a bargain I cherish my liberty
and protect it as much as I can.  You'll happily give away your liberty
in change for some gratis stuff.

In conclusion you don't know what free means.  It is getting old isn't
it?  How many times do we need to tell you to read a dictionary?