Ok...now how does this pertain to CVS??? This discussion group is for
issues relating to CVS. Please limit your posting to the perscribed
subject. Take the griping and opinions about different open source
environments elsewhere.
Matt Berney Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Software Test Engineer Phone: 466-6278
Oresis Communications
-----Original Message-----
From: David Thornley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 3:06 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Cvswebedit needs to be made GPL/open source. Any
volunteers?
"Todd T. Fries" wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 13, 2000 at 11:17:46AM -0700, Steve Arnold wrote:
> > In short, no, and it sucks. RS created the GPL precisely because the BSD
> > license was too restrictive. And the XFree86 guys use the GPL because
> > they didn't like the X license (again, too restrictive).
>
> You are off base here. X and BSD allow anyone to do anything with the
> source, GPL expressedly forbids anyone to do anything without releasing
it.
Actually, no. Unless I am sadly mistaken, the GPL allows you to do
whatever you like to the software in private (the "consenting
programmers"
principle). Once you decide to distribute it, the license takes
effect: you must release it under the GPL and you must release the
modified source code.
> GPL is the more restrictive. It is the freedom to 'do whatever' with the
> source that RS cannot stand, and thus you and his cronies continue to
> suggest that GPL is less restrictive, when in reality, it forces more
> restrictions.
Specifically, if I'm using code under the GPL, I'm prevented from
doing things that I could do if I were to use, for example, X code.
The GPL even points these things out: there are programs that you
simply may not link with GPL-covered code and distribute. I don't
believe this is the case with X code (provided you satisfy the
requirements for the code you're linking to). (This is in
addition to the practical difficulty of using Gnu code in commercial
software.)
Now, the people at Gnu obviously think these restrictions are
reasonable, and that's fine with me. I can use Gnu software
under the GPL or not at all, just like any other. However, it is
a more restrictive license than X and BSD in terms of what
it allows me to do with software, and there's no point in
pretending otherwise.
--
David H. Thornley Software Engineer
at CES International, Inc.: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (763)-694-2556
at home: (612)-623-0552 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] or
http://www.visi.com/~thornley/david/
