[CS-FSLUG] GNU believers

[Aaron Patrick Lehmann]

On Thu, Sep 02, 2004 at 01:09:16PM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 12:59, Aaron Patrick Lehmann wrote:
> > if I attach a rider saying, "To derive
> > from my code, you cannot protect your intellectual and commercial
> > interests in this code by denying others the right to modify and
> > distribute your derivative work," everyone says, "What a great guy!"
> 
> More precisely, they add "Now I can use this work, sure in the knowledge 
> that it's very difficult to embrace-and-extend it in ways that will 
> harm me."

The problem is that it also keeps people like myself who are releasing their
code gratis, in the hope that it will be useful and with no strings attached
from deriving from their code, because the rider would force me to add that
rider to my code (this is what I mean by "viral", btw), which is something I
will not do.  Thus forcing me to reinvent the wheel, in a manner quite similar
to certain, less savory liscenses.

> 
> The GPL isn't universally ideal, and many projects (Apache, PostFix, BIND,
> PostgreSQL) get along fine without it. Even RMS, who is personally difficult
> to deal with, has on at least one occasion blessed a decision to use a BSD
> licence instead. However, a backbone of GPLed software (Linux, KDE, The GIMP)
> is vital for keeping the, er, fatherless honest, because said fatherless will
> be with us until Jesus returns. We do live in a fallen world, no? Part of our
> basic theology?

Sure.  But there are honest orphans out there.  I can see the reasoning behind
GPL-type things if someone is seeking to profit from their software, as well as
"do it better," but I plan to be making my money working for a company.
They'll be paying for my bread, and OSS will be a hobby/resume builder.  Since
I don't seek to gain from the software, I don't stand to lose, and I'd rather
assume that the fatherless are named "Annie" and not "Dodger."  Just because
some men will seek to exploit me, does not mean that I should seek to eploit
all men.

Aaron Lehmann
-- 
Sometimes you stay the course;
Sometimes the course stays you.