The Secure Surfing Organization does endorse and recommend the GNU General Public License (GPL) and all people and businesses should exercise a strong preference for software that is GPL licensed. This is not a recommendation based on left/right ideology but on security, privacy and certainty. Users always have certainty about their legal position with software that is GPL licensed and they have a very large community of independent actors who will fight to ensure that even a single user is not subject to punishment, restriction or liability arising out of the use of GPL software.
It is important to understand that this is distinct from Open Source Software(OSS) licenses of which there are many variants all of which place different and sometimes unpredictable or uncertain obligations on users. The Secure Surfing Organization supports Open Source Software, including products such as Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.
But users must be aware that the Terms and Conditions for Open Source Software are usually specific to the software and impose different conditions on the users. Most OSS software is expansive and presents no concerns for users (eg. the Mozilla License for Firefox and Thunderbird).
However, some OSS licenses do put users into a complicated or uncertain position. For that reason, whenever there is a choice between Open Source and GPL, you should always opt for the GPL licensed software.
The Secure Surfing Network also has reservations about the “Creative Commons License(s)” as it allows so much variation in understanding or interpretation as to eliminate certainty. Indeed, it is so variable that we what is included in the License Library is really no it because there is no”it” to include. It’s variations are confusing and it is not always clear what is and is not permitted. Any individual author is permitted to place entirely unique conditions on his version of the license. This exposes users to potential legal or ethical attacks or unpredictable invasions of assumedly legitimate behaviour.
Even the home site of this license does not rely on the actual license but instead presents a database interface to allow authors to customize the terms and conditions themselves. You can see it here.
While cast in ideological terms, the article on the Free Software Foundation web site provides an excellent understanding of the practical differences between GPL and OSS. The Free Software Foundation chooses to explain the difference in terms of philosophy while the Secure Surfing Organization argues that what they refer to as philosophical differences are in fact practical, pragmatic concerns for users.
We value Open Source Software and open source solutions only to the extent that they protect the privacy, security and stability/certainty of technology users. As a practical matter having source code open to anyone to view increases the security of users by ensuring no hidden unacceptable programming or other abuse is taking place.
GPL software goes beyond Open Source and creates an environment where the user is the most secure, because not only is the source code available for anyone to examine, but the legal conditions, context and consequences are completely predictable. There are no “unforeseen consequences” to the use of GPL software. It’s free. And you can do whatever you want with it.
For us, this is a very practical matter and not an intangible or philosophical one. But we respect the position of the Free Software Foundation and remain simply grateful that there work results in positive practical consequences regardless any philosophical considerations.
Documents in the Library cannot be taken as authoritative and are presented for research and public interest purposes only.
Members and Guests (using verification) are welcome to post new documents to the Library and The Secure Surfing Network does not vouch for the accuracy, currency or validity of any content unless expressly stated.
