On 3/3/06, Peter Brett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Friday 03 March 2006 20:03, Timothy Miller wrote:
>
> > By releasing it under GPL, we can still share it under terms that FOSS
> > people like.  But for anyone who doesn't want to infect the rest of
> > their design, they can pay for a proprietary license.  The LGPL
> > doesn't require that.
>
> Or they could just take it, burn it into an ASIC and sell it, and no-one (us
> least of all) would be the wiser.
>
> Just my (rather bitter and twisted) £0.02 worth.

Like I say, if the FOSS community's demand to release under GPL was
the wrong decision, then it's themselves they're screwing.  Let's hope
they know what they're asking for.  :)

The GPL is great, but there are people who are downright religious
fundamentalist about it.  GPL or not at all.  Sounds a bit extremist
to me, and inflexible beliefs systems are prone to breakdown in
various ways.

I'm thinking about all of those people who called me an idiot for not
originally wanting to release the RTL at all.  (Well, wanting to but
seeing it as too risky.)  If they just happen to turn out to be right,
they'll be back, telling me how right they were.  If they turn out to
be wrong, most of them will never fess up to their error, and the rest
will blame the failure on me somehow, even if what puts us out of
business is someone using the IP legally under the GPL.

Well, you all remember what happened with Bitkeeper.  We all knew from
the beginning that using a proprietary source management tool with the
poster-boy of Free Software, the Linux kernel, was going to fly like a
lead balloon.

So I can see why those same people would be offended by me not
releasing some of my "source code".  It just makes me wonder why they
never notice all those OTHER chips out there not being open source
too.

I'm just hoping that the fanatics who talk about freedom will put
their money where their mouths are, lest it become apparent that their
true motivation is zero-cost rather than freedom.  :)

My whole desire when starting this project was to develop hardware
that would support the Free Software idea.  It's about freedom, users
in control of their own fate, sharing of ideas, creativity,
meritocracy, and all of those other things that make us better as
intellectual beings.  Who knew I would get flamed so much over it.  :)
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