My view on this all is something like this:

• Users should have their freedoms to use, change, share the program. Even if they are doing it for profit. Even if those users are corporations.
• Copyleft is useful to make it so when those who share, share, their versions of the same program is also Libre. It is not about protecting the developer. It is to insure the user still has the freedom.
• One is not required to share. So if I make a version of the program that works for me, I am under no obligation to give anyone a copy of it. ( But under copyleft, if I do, I need this copy to be libre )

So I can withhold giving away my copy until I get paid. Basically I don’t even release anything until I get what I want from the deal. And I can do that for every change I make. But as soon as I make what I wan and release it, everything is libre from the beginning.

I can use screenshots or videos to prove that I have a working piece of software. And tease what are the changes I made.

The question now is, can there be a platform to streamline this process?

legally binding non-disclosure agreements

I don’t sign those.

to help open source projects like gnu or copy-left licenses

Copyleft was not designed to protect the developer from corporations. It was designed to protect users from developers.

a big part of me is sad that i will never become rich like my current colleagues

I know this feeling. I was finishing my film Moria’s Race which is libre and will never make a single cent. And then I went to see Spielberg’s Auto-Biographical film “The Fablemans” and it literally broke me. The amount of evil I have to agree to do just to have a chance at something like this. Oh my god. It didn’t help to go see Avatar 2 right after that.

The worst is that a lot of people delude themselves that they are good. I don’t think Spielberg is a bad person. The messages in his films seem to point that he is firmly on the side of freedom. Though he never thought about copyright, for example, as being anything evil yet. And probably if somebody will point it out to him, his age is such that there is probably very little neuro-plasticity left there, and if he somehow justified copyright all this time, it will be hard to convince him otherwise now. Not even talking about how his whole career is basically holding on the fact that copyright exists.

To do something about this whole apocalypse, we need to change values. GDP has to go away! Something like a freedom score should replace it. That will already force governments to divert from stupid ideas like “chat control”. And perhaps will make them start supporting Free / Libre projects. And then of course, there should be ways to make money in Free / Libre to convince those who care only about how big their pockets are. Donations do not cut it. They are good, but they feel pathetic in comparison to what a proprietary alternative makes. There should be a way to make money without restricting freedom. Devices is a good start. Librem5 and PinePhone are amazing. Software is totally free. Maybe something like a reverse-crowd-funding could be implemented for simple software. Basically the changes aren’t even released to begin with, until people come and fill up a can full of money. Each can send a cent or a million dollars. But the idea is, the developer chooses how much will unlock the release. And since it is unlocked it is totally free. And to avoid proprietary versions, until it is unlocked nobody has access apart from the devs.

how can I do the math? Do you have any links…

I documented the math I did on this article: https://blenderdumbass.org/articles/Surveillance_Harms_1000_Times_More_Than_It_Helps.md

😀

Are you the same Blender Dumbass 2.0 ?

I am the same blenderdumbass as in odysee.com/@blenderdumbass:f and as in blenderdumbass.org

I bought a phone for something like $20 which is very simple. It has no vibration. It has 65 KB of onboard storage. And it is not a smartphone. I don’t even take it with me most of the time, because I know that nobody will call me anyway, so why bother. I use it very rarely. The most usage I have from it is calling, flashlight and maybe as a clock once every so often, since I have many actual clocks.

On the computer I use GNU / Linux. And I have no complaints.

So I don’t understand why even bother with a smartphone in the first place?

PS: I would love to try Pinephone or Librem5 though.

how and when you know it’s a necessity

I did the math actually. And it seems like mass surveillance will only be justified if homicide rates are higher than 20% ( if 1 out of 5 people die in murder ). And only if surveillance actually stops all the crime ( which it doesn’t ) and only if there is nothing less problematic that could be used instead ( which there are plenty techniques, like normal regular investigation, where you ask people around on their own terms ). Basically the math says it isn’t justified by an apocalyptic margin.

As always, they use a mildly annoying problem and try to solve it with absolute apocalypse.

It’s proprietary.