Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 14:17:52 -0700 From: "David Schwartz" <davids@webmaster.com> To: "Rahul Siddharthan" <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Cc: "Anatoly Vorobey" <mellon@pobox.com>, <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: RE: Why are people against GNU? WAS Re: 5.0 already? Message-ID: <000001bfbf7c$31d2ed20$021d85d1@youwant.to> In-Reply-To: <20000517023516.C13129@physics.iisc.ernet.in>
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> > > For the record, this is what RMS says. He doesn't exactly answer
> > > my question (I had made it clear that I'm not asking whether it
> > > is desirable, only whether it's allowed), but from the tone of his
> > > answer I would imagine that it is not prohibited to do this,
> > > merely a "bad idea".
> >
> > First of all, what RMS says (other than him specifically granting
> > permission for people to do things) is irrelevant. His opinion
> of the GPL
> > holds no more legal force than anybody else's opinion.
>
> All right. So please point me a single paragraph in the GPL which tells
> you that you must agree to allow replacing the GPL v2 by any
> future version.
The GPL states:
"How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA"
That's how the GPL permits you to use it. This part of the GPL is no more
optional than any other part of it. Again, far from a suggestion, this
portion of the GPL is the only portion that grants permission to apply the
GPL to your own software.
DS
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