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Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org
Software freedom activist since 1992. Copyleft theorist & FOSS policy wonk. Expert in FOSS non-profit structures.
Views expressed herein are mine & not necessarily those of any organization w/ which I'm affiliated.
Fediverse “claim to fame”: Invented “Affero clause” of #Mastodon's license: https://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2007/11/21/stet-and-agplv3
1ˢᵗ #Linux: 0.99pl12
1ˢᵗ #Debian: 🧊🥔
Pronouns: he/them
#copyleft, #ethics for #LLMGenAI, #FOSS, #FreeSoftware, #OpenSource, #AGPLv3, #GPL, #LGPL
#StarTrek, #GreatestGen
🏳️🌈
Co-editor-in-chief of copyleft-next: https://next.copyleft.org
Personal Blog: https://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog
Professional Bio: https://sfconservancy.org/about/staff/#bkuhn
Random Code & Configs: https://f.sfconservancy.org/bkuhn
Joined: 2026-10-18 05:22:23
7 notes, 0 following, 0 followers
Reply to @civodul@toot.aquilenet.fr
Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org (2026-10-18 10:20:07)
@civodul
You're not going far enough back in FOSS history here. Capitalists have been forcing us to answer that question for at least 15, possibly 20 years, and we've been answering it wrong because of the oppressive boot of Big Tech on us.
We must keep doing what we've been doing all that time: trying to undermine capitalism even though we have to live under (almost surely) for the rest of our natural days.
@cwebber @copiesofcopies
Reply to @twipped@twipped.social
Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org (2026-10-18 00:58:42)
@twipped
But FOSS' success up until this point has shown the exact opposite.
FOSS was bootstrapped by using proprietary software every single day for more than a decade, at least.
Most FOSS developers regularly used proprietary technologies daily for their work for the entirety of FOSS' history.
Plus, what @copiesofcopies said:
https://fedi.copyleft.org/@copiesofcopies@social.coop/117457049015278425
Cc: @cwebber
#LLMGenAI #LLM #AI #FOSS #SoftwareFreedom #OpenSource #FreeSoftware
Reply to @copiesofcopies@social.coop
Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org (2026-10-17 07:43:57)
@copiesofcopies
We are more in agreement than you realize:
I guess now is a good as time as any to “come out”: I'm using #Anthropic's #Claude on a regular basis to help me figure out what types of policies we should set for reasonable & ethical use of #LLMGenAI in #FOSS, & also to actually improve FOSS codebases.
I believe it is reasonable to use proprietary technologies as long as our eyes remain on the prize of defeating those technologies.
@cwebber, I suspect, doesn't agree.
#LLM #AI
Reply to @copiesofcopies@social.coop
Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org (2026-10-16 21:57:46)
@copiesofcopies
∃ **so many** cases pending! It seems to me we can't guess the outcome at this point with reliability beyond like a 1-to-100 (or more) chance against the field.
Also, keep in mind the way most software developers use LLM-gen-AI now is to modify a work in front of them: `git clone` something, then work with the #LLMGenAI to modify it. I don't see how a fair use defense will allow those changes to dodge license requirements.
Also, FOSS licenses are contracts, too.
Cc: @cwebber
Reply to @trashheap@tech.lgbt
Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org (2026-10-15 21:01:58)
@trashheap
Hopefully it is clear now that it was a misunderstanding.
Cc: @cwebber
Reply to @trashheap@tech.lgbt
Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org (2026-10-15 20:55:21)
@trashheap
If a statement I made seemed like I said that, I either misspoke or it was misquoted. (Also, I wouldn't have 🤬'd making a point like this in any event.)
My position is instead that enforcement of attribution requirements **by themselves** (without other copyleft provisions to provide scaffolding) has always been extremely difficult to nearly impossible in real world contexts. #LLMGenAI may make the problem more acute, but the problem has always been there.
Cc: @cwebber
#LLM #AI
Reply to @cwebber@social.coop
Bradley M. Kühn@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org (2026-10-15 20:27:22)
(1/2) IMO @cwebber has made a strawperson argument, because I don't know anyone (at least, anyone who is serious about #FOSS policy & how its impacted by LLM-gen-AI) who says “nobody cares about attribution requirements”.
I can only speak for my own position, but my position (based on 30 years of community observation) is that (a) attribution is not particularly important to most *who choose* **non**-copyleft, & (b) attribution *alone* never had a particularly good enforcement hook.…
#AI #LLM