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Misconceptions About the GPL
lisah writes "Misconceptions about the widely used GNU General Public License (GPL) continue to plague the free software user community and, according to the ITManagersJournal, 'the confusion is frequently based on misreadings, rumors, secondhand accounts, and what is convenient to believe.' In order to clarify some of the more common misunderstandings about the GPL, Bruce Byfield consulted with three experts: attorney Richard Fontana, one of the main drafters of the third version of the license; Harald Welte of the GPL-Violations project; and David Turner who is assisting with revisions of the license. Together, they help clarify the distributor's role in providing source code to customers, whether GPL is viral or unenforceable, and why some misunderstandings are really rooted in varied interpretations of the law." ITMJ and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.
What an apt name. As others have pointed out, how can inanimate collections of ones and zeros be free? Your error is that the user is, in fact, more free. You've carefully crafted your statement to say that the user is no more free with GPL software than he is with BSD or public domain software. Well, that's true, as far as it goes. But the vast majority of software that the average Joe uses is neither public domain nor BSD-licensed. It's proprietary. And the GPL beats the snot out of that for the user.
Keep working on it, and maybe you can aspire to become "MediocreAnalogyGuy".
Sean
Being stupid won't help you. Even if you had the source code locked in your room and IchessU breaked into your house and stole it and somehow you figured it out later, you would still need a lawyer!! If you can't afford paying a lawyer go look for a public defender. Public defenders are employed by the government to provide legal counsel to defendants who are unable to pay for legal assistance. Go to the Israeli Public Defender's Office.