Wow! I leave it for a night, and the debate rages on. I not going to write an essay on the subject, so I'll try and address the important points as I see them, in a concise a manner as possible. First, Michael I can confirm that I am in fact a male (it's generally a male name, though you will occasionally find a female Vijay) Secondly, you've done a better job that I would have done at summarising my position. :-)
Noah, you're taking my use of the word speech to literally; replace all instances of the word "speech" with "expression" and you'll get a better idea of where I'm coming from. Personally I believe (as you seemed to agree) that code is an art form, I don't know about you but I believe that art should enjoy the same protections as speech when it comes to freedom. Think of it this way, Imagine I'm a Labour supporter* and I take a photo (or perhaps draw a picture) of the Prime Minister to put on my wall, or sell or whatever. I believe that Private-Eye has every right to take a copy of that photo put a humorous caption on it and stick it on the front of their magazine in order to satirise the Prime Minister. I apply the same principles to my code. Take an example other that TIVO, say $Company uses my code to do something I don't like perhaps they sell something I find morally objectionable (from arms dealers to rap music; choose your bogeyman) and my code is used within their product, should I be able to stop them? I say, just as with the photo of the Prime Minister, stopping them would amount to censorship, and GPLv3 amounts to censoring TIVO. My position offers freedom without taking it away from others as people are free to not to buy Private-Eye, rap music or weaponry, just as people were free not to buy a TIVO. To be blunt, I disagree that what TIVO did took any freedom away from anyone, they just did something I didn't like, no one is free to to not be offended. To the person who said GPLv3 is more idealistic: having reflected on it over night, I've realised that my position is in fact more idealistic than that of the FSF, and as a result GPLv3 is not (as claimed) more idealistic than GPLv2 but less so as it is more restrictive. *I'm not, I can't stand any of our main political parties.
