Nadav Har'El wrote:
>or Linux or anything like that, are now using the Free software Hspell.
>
>
Lots of congratulations. It's moments like this that are why I write
software too.
>Of course, this also raises a bunch of moral and philosophical issues:
>whether Google should have acknowledged their use of Hspell on their site
>
>
Not according to GPL V2. GPL V3 draft 1 does require any interactive
program to acknowledge the fact it's GPL. It remains to be understood
whether Hspell is interactive.
>(I can't find any such thing), or whether they should have at least
>acknowledged it to me
>
Definitely not. At least not as a requirement. A fundemental part of
"Free Software" is the fact that you can use a program without any
restrictions on use/change/distribution, not even the minor restriction
of having to notify the original author. A license that says "you can do
whatever you want with the program so long as you drop me an email about
it" is nonfree according to Debian's standard and the OSI's criteria.
You can find many FOSS authors that ASK to be notified, but a
requirement would render the program non-free.
> (they didn't... I only know that they use Hspell because
>of certain "decoy" words that Hspell contains).
>
>
Well, that may well be impolite of them. That is something else.
>It also raises again the interesting question of how should the GPL be
>changed in (if at all) in a world where proprietary Internet services like
>GMail replace proprietary software as "the enemy" that the GPL was trying to
>"battle".
>
Was it? I really don't think it is.
> Many people still don't understand enough, or don't appreciate,
>the significance of this question, which the GPL 3 is starting to address
>(in a certain way, which I still don't know if is the correct way).
>
>
Actually, I have not found anything in GPL V3's draft that targets
service providers, despite "threats" raised in the past.
>Anyway, enjoy Hspell (now in GMail too!), and I hope that some time soon
>we'll release a new version (1.0, finally) with over 1,000 new words and
>other improvements.
>
>
That is the spirit, and congratulations again.
>Nadav.
>
Shachar
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