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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!news.he.net!news.iquest.net!not-for-mail From: "John S. Dyson" <dyson@freebsd.org> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Linux vs whatever Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 09:11:24 -0500 Organization: John S. Dyson's home machine Lines: 43 Message-ID: <32EF5A8C.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <5cl66d$l52@web.nmti.com> <32EE3C3C.5534B736@indiana.edu> <5clcjd$l34@cynic.portal.ca> <5cmiv4$iuf@garuda.synet.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: dyson.iquest.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; FreeBSD 3.0-CURRENT i386) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:154926 comp.os.linux.networking:66516 comp.os.linux.setup:94442 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2099 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:51283 comp.os.os2.advocacy:264142 Dave Bodenstab wrote: > > In article <5clcjd$l34@cynic.portal.ca>, > Curt Sampson <cjs@cynic.portal.ca> wrote: > >In article <32EE3C3C.5534B736@indiana.edu>, > > Then why did you add the 500 lines of GPL'ed code? It was your > choice, was it not? If you use 500 lines of another person's code, > then you need their permission. If you don't like their terms, then > don't use it. I don't understand why people feel that they have a > right to use other's work, and are offended when the original author > puts conditions on its use. > > In the case that the GPL conflicts with another license... you're > correct -- you can't use it. So what's the problem? There are > many things that we "can't do" because of legal requirements. > You are agreeing with my position without knowing it (I think). There are cases in history that people have been either using GPLed code by default, or slapping a GPL on their code without really understanding the consequences. A long time ago (before I met you at IW :-)), I really didn't understand the ramifications of GPL. Later on, in a commercial setting, we were looking at using some GPLed code at work, and of course, being deligent, studied the licensing terms carefully of each piece of software that we were going to use. We were planning to use something under the GPL copyleft... The license was long, and a group of us tried to carefully interpret it (and understand the ramifications.) Finally, we had to pass it by our local legal staff. They were NOT pleased about certain aspects of the license. So, initially, out of ignorance, I was blindly pro-GPL, like alot of other people (which you apparently DO understand the positive and negative ramifications), but I didn't. Now, I have found that it does have it's limitations and it's misuse of the term "free" -- which I have argued over for a long time, is one of the major things that discredits it in my eyes (and of course, makes it more seductive to those who don't understand it's limitations.) John