Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 13:59:32 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, Trevor Johnson <trevor@jpj.net> Cc: David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>, Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Stallman now claims authorship of Linux Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20010419135326.045df4d0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <20010419185356.M88142@lpt.ens.fr> References: <20010419075750.P5664-100000@blues.jpj.net> <NCBBLIEPOCNJOAEKBEAKIEEFOHAA.davids@webmaster.com> <20010419075750.P5664-100000@blues.jpj.net>
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At 10:53 AM 4/19/2001, Rahul Siddharthan wrote: >All the anti-GPL crusaders are people who want free software but don't >want to abide by the original author's terms. Not so. I oppose the GPL on ethical grounds. What's more, the terms of the GPL are not the "original author's terms." They're Stallman's terms, which most programmers who use the GPL stamp on the code without understanding the GPL's history, intent, and effects. Finally, those terms are unconscionable and constitute "copyright abuse." While the GPL is as yet untested in court, it would likely not survive a fair trial. (Any trial held today would likely be UNfair due to uneven funding; the FSF has a large war chest reserved for that battle.) >There are at least two projects -- ghostscript and qt -- whose authors >(Peter Deutsch and Troll Tech, respectively) were uneasy about the GPL >because it does not *sufficiently* restrict commercial use. TrollTech was foolish to knuckle under and GPL QT. It is doubtful that their company will survive that mistake. As for Peter Deutsch: He fell victim to the GPL's negative effects on authors and responded in precisely the wrong way: by creating a license that was similar to the GPL but still more viral and anti-business. The result: that version is largely ignored. The GPLed version of his code continues to circulate, depriving him of income. --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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