*BSD News Article 88325


Return to BSD News archive

#! rnews 2264 bsd
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!lucy.swin.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au!news.apana.org.au!cantor.edge.net.au!news.mira.net.au!pumpkin.pangea.ca!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!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: Mon, 03 Feb 1997 20:52:56 -0500
Organization: John S. Dyson's home machine
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <32F69678.41C67EA6@freebsd.org>
References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <5clgth$et2@qnx.com>
	 <5cokjc$amq@web.nmti.com> <nVV8y0gTzX9Y091yn@ibm.net>
	 <5ctv9v$ser@cynic.portal.ca> <D3P9y0gTzXhE091yn@ibm.net>
	 <32F51B8F.167EB0E7@freebsd.org> <O1o9y0gTzDkG091yn@ibm.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:156157 comp.os.linux.networking:67268 comp.os.linux.setup:95496 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2242 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:51890 comp.os.os2.advocacy:265678

Mouth of the South wrote:

> 
> >so it is not always likely that the customer (who receives the
> >source) is going to bother to redistribute it (it is a cost/benefit
> >tradeoff for them.)  The customer becomes the 'hoarder' then :-).
> 
> But if the code is sufficiently worthwhile that more than a handful of
> users obtain it, it won't take long for the newly derived source code to
> make its first appearance and begin to circulate.
>
Maybe eventually -- isn't it sad that the IP owner who spent lots on
his IP was hoodwinked into using the GPL anyway?

> 
> Not only is GPL a self replicating machine, it's also a perpetual motion
> machine.  What a concept!
>
The virus/bacteria lives and many times the body dies due to side
effects.
We need to learn to bury such virus laden code (like we bury bodies
:-)).
Short-sightedly it might appear to be perpetual motion, but when owners
of IP find out that their developers are infecting their IP with GPL,
more
and more will put a stop to the practice.

John