At 1:55 PM -0800 on 11/13/99, Alain Farmer wrote:
>Anthony: In short, if we use the GPL as is, then all
>standalones must be under the GPL. If we add a clause
>exempting standalones, all I have to do to make it
>closed-source is create a standalone. The GPL would
>work, were it not for these problems.
>
>Alain: If this means that, in order to protect
>ourselves against a MicroSloth takeover by using GPL,
>we must forego the advantages that standalones would
>have represented for us, then so be it.
For out purposes -- allowing the release of non-OpenSource software
writting using NuCard -- the GPL, any modification, any variant, any
semblence of it are out. The GPL was designed with the opposite goal in
mind: That no software may be proprietary. This is the philosophy of the
FSF; non-free software (by their definition) is wrong, ought to be illegal,
and ought not be used.
For this reason, any attempt, no matter how skilled, to modify the GPL to
our purposes will fail; either that, or we will not have anything
resembling the GPL left. In any case, it'll take longer to fix the GPL to
our purposes than to write our own.
And besides, the FSF holds the copyright to the GPL; we'd be violating
their copyright if we were to modify their licence to our purposes.
>Alain: Bad example, I guess. How about HyperCard? Or
>other softwares where the distinction between program
>and data is blurry. I greatly appreciate the fact that
>we can create HyperCard standalone programs without
>any licencing restrictions whatsoever. Its a really
>big plus. If proprietary Apple can be so generous, why
>can't we who profess to be open and free be as
>generous?
We can. Note that Apple does not use the GPL, and neither can we if we want
to be.
>Anthony: OpenKard stacks would be fine ...
>
>Alain: You are agreeing with me, are you not, that
>stacks created with the OpenKard authoring tool would
>not be constrained (infected) by the GPL-licence?
Yes. The GPL even has a provision that makes this distinction clear.
However, the second one bit of data from NuCard gets in their, it falls
under the GPL. Although one could probably argue 'fair use' for an icon or
two.
