this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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This. So much.
I am old enough to remember many people on the Internet questioning the entire concept of copyright and reacting to it with free licensing, defense of torrent sites, founding Pirate Parties.
Now I read that the primary reason to reject AI is that it is a "thief"??? In the era I described above, someone wrote a song with the lyrics: copying is not theft, stealing a thing leaves one less left, copying it makes one thing more, that's what copying's for…
See also https://www.techdirt.com/2026/09/23/copyright-infringement-still-isnt-theft-even-when-a-microsoft-employee-says-it-is/
Copying.... is fuuuuuuuuun 🎶🎵
Copyleft is a hack of copyright that ensures rights to users of software that you wouldn't have if there was no copyright. Software is different from other creative works like music and books in that it does computing. Sharing a binary file freely isn't enough - you need the source code to keep it maintained or change it to your will (through collaborative efforts). You prevent others withholding the source code via that copyrighted license.
You can reject the unreasonable sentences of copyright infringement, the illegality of breaking locks on your own hardware, or the long copyright terms while still promoting copyright for copyleft's sake. Companies lobbies for those laws to prevent "stealing', throwing people in jail or fining them into oblivion - are they going to undo all that? Can I share Disney films without going to jail now?
What the hell.
Copyleft means "the absence of copyright", not "copyright wielded by radlibs".
I don't think "the absence of copyright" is the best description of copyleft. I believe "the right to copy is left to the end user" better encapsulates the spirit.
Words have different usages among different groups of people. Wikipedia seems to support my use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft
TIL radlibs' holy scripture smears copyleft. The page reads like it was written by a bourgie copyright advocate.
I should have known, radlibs' holy scripture was founded by ancaps after all.
That's many new words for me, seems some groups of people also have no usage of words that others use!
I value software freedom; basically being in control of your own computing. I dislike others taking my code and then denying their users the same freedoms they enjoyed. If not for that I could do without most of Copyright as it is today.
You don't get what copyright is at all. The bourgie propaganda seems to have convinced you that "copyright protects you from copyright and if it weren't there nothing would protect you from copyright"
For some people, it's easier to imagine the end of the world, than to imagine the end of ~~capitalism~~ the copyright system.
People sue companies that take our code and redistribute it while denying their users freedoms we indended for them in the software license. We call it GPL enforcement, or copyleft license enforcement. https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/oct/01/compliance-principles/