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From: mandtbac@news.abo.fi (Mats Andtbacka)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD
Followup-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Date: 12 Dec 1995 01:53:59 GMT
Organization: Unorganized Usenet Postings UnInc.
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Distribution: comp
Message-ID: <4ainbn$ldf@josie.abo.fi>
References: <4a2kme$32d@josie.abo.fi> <DJ6IJE.78D@nntpa.cb.att.com> <4a54u5$jj5@josie.abo.fi> <DJ8DMn.3oM@nntpa.cb.att.com> <4aa6k2$9et@josie.abo.fi> <4aajus$nd@dyson.iquest.net> <4afb7q$lgj@josie.abo.fi> <4agsg2$bqc@uriah.heep.sax.de>
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J Wunsch, in <4agsg2$bqc@uriah.heep.sax.de>:
>mandtbac@news.abo.fi (Mats Andtbacka) writes:
>> >But what do you do if you want to take individual source files if you
>> >want to make a derivative product?????
>> You read through the GPL and make sure you don't violate it.
>For most of us who wanna use the code in a commercial environment,
>your sentence reads like: ``Drop this immediately, and re-code it for
>you.''
It's past 3 am, and I had to read that thrice before I thought I
understood that you meant commercial developers won't touch GPL'ed
code with a ten-foot pole.
That's their privilege; nobody forces anybody else to use the GPL. If
commercial developers want to code everything themselves from scratch,
fine; that's the way the software business has thrived for decades
already.
I'm trying desperately not to add "that, and code theft"; I grow
cynical towards the wee hours.
>This causes many pieces of software to be re-invented over and over
>again. This is a sad side-effect of the GPL, and i bet it contradicts
>the original intentions of RMS. (I believe that's why he's been
>creating the LGPL later.)
Actually, the LGPL deals with the extra complications of (shared)
libraries. But to try and blame the GPL, which was expressly created
to try and solve the reinventing-the-wheel problems (among other
things the GPL was intended to do) for a problem far older than it
makes no sense; it's not a side effect of the GPL by any measure.
If the GPL fails, well, that's another story; if that is so, you can
at least argue that it was tried. But I sincerely doubt that it has
created particularly many new problems, if only because it's not
become very economically significant.
>> >Oh my, yet another restriction to the GPL.... That makes it even less
>> >desirable....
>> ....To you. Some of us _want_ these restrictions; if I wanted people
>> to be able to do just anything with my code, there's always the
>> public domain.
>``Public domain'' is nothing. It doesn't even protect your right for
>a copyright.
That was my point.
> That's why we prefer something slightly above PD: ``You
>can do whatever you like with this code, as long as you don't claim
>you've written it.'' (Yes, that's practically the only restriction of
>the X11 or BSD copyright.)
And just as you want more protection than PD, some people want more
protection than X11/BSD. Some people find the GPL to their tastes as
far as protection for their work is concerned.
Which was my other point.
>Please, do understand that the GPL is plainly unacceptable for many of
>us who are thinking of using code in a commercial environment, instead
>of trying to convince us of it.
If I ever came across as trying to convince anybody to do anything of
the sort then I sincerely apologize for raising your blood pressures
unnecessarily. Please, do by all means feel free to use whichever
copyright, license, or lack thereof that might catch your fancy.
As for me, I shall do likewise.
>I do realize that it's your intention to protect people from making
>money out of your code under any circumstances
No it's not. If it were I'd slap a "no commercial use" shareware-
style license on it. The GPL says nothing about _price_; it speaks
only of _freedom_.
And don't start any nonsense about socialism and its "evils" either.
Living where I do my political views might not be entirely compatible
with yours.
>joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
>Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)
I'd've said something snide about that line in your .sig, but I'm too
tired. Goodnight.
--
" ... got to contaminate to alleviate this loneliness
i now know the depths i reach are limitless... "
-- nin