John Galt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Sun, 3 Dec 2000, John Lines wrote: > > > By being the first, and most frequently mentions Free Software license the > > GPL > > Survey says...Bzzzt! The GPL is a latecomer in the free software arena.
Um, the Copyleft predates the BSD free license. The first things released BSD free were some games posted to comp.sources.unix. Later came the two networking tapes, and 4.4 Lite. The GPL is a trivial modification of the Copyleft to make it "a subroutine" that can be generically adapted to any program. The terms of the GPL Version 1 are essentially identical to those for GNU Emacs or GCC going back long before BSD even thought about making anything free. Also, were it not for RMS, BSD might well have never released anything free; it was conversations between him and people at Berkeley that caused them to realize the importance of free software. Thomas
