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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!lucy.swin.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!arclight.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!nntp.portal.ca!cynic.portal.ca!not-for-mail From: cjs@cynic.portal.ca (Curt Sampson) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Linux vs whatever Date: 28 Jan 1997 12:31:33 -0800 Organization: Internet Portal Services, Inc. Lines: 55 Message-ID: <5clnn5$r2o@cynic.portal.ca> References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <5qC7y0gTzDLB091yn@ibm.net> <32ECB442.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> <Sia7y0gTzjYL091yn@ibm.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: cynic.portal.ca Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:154806 comp.os.linux.networking:66462 comp.os.linux.advocacy:81495 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2083 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:51241 comp.os.os2.advocacy:264075 In article <Sia7y0gTzjYL091yn@ibm.net>, Mouth of the South <mouth@ibm.net> wrote: >The difference in our attitudes is like native American Indians vs. the >white man in the 1800's. The Indians never considered the land or water >as "property," but merely as something to be shared by all. If that's the case, those who support the GPL are certainly on the `white man' side. Putting your code under the GPL is clearly saying that a) it's your property, and b) you are going to place some very clear limits on what people can do with that property, and what they can do with any other code they choose to associate with that property. >It depends on your outlook. For a typical greedy corporate executive, >the GPL is pretty scary; for enlightened individuals and organizations, >GPL is the RIGHT thing. Despite having put many hundreds of hours into work for the free software community in just the past couple of years, I am presumbly one of those `greedy corporate executives' you talk about. (I am one of the owners and managers of a small company, and some of the code we produce is not publically available.) However, I'm not `scared' by the GPL. Why should anybody in my position find it `pretty scary'? My opinion is that if wanting to be able to use `free' code in a commerical product is greedy, then putting your code under the GNU licence so that others can't do this is spiteful. As for it being the `right thing' for enlightened individuals and organisations: what makes it any better than the Berkeley licence? The popularity and extensive improvements made to Berkeley code despite not having a GPL appears to indicate that the GPL is not really necessary. >Likewise, I do not object to the GPL because I have little desire to >jealously guard the code I write and hide it from others. In that case, stop jealously guarding your code with the GPL and use something that gives the users more freedom, such as the Berkeley licence. Better yet, make your code not property by putting it into the public domain. >I can always code for a living. Actually, I expect that the market for programmers would be better without the GPL, since corporations would have more incentive to hire people to modify freely-available code. cjs -- Curt Sampson cjs@portal.ca Info at http://www.portal.ca/ Internet Portal Services, Inc. Vancouver, BC (604) 257-9400 De gustibus, aut bene aut nihil.