Dear Eric S. Raymond, I'm sorry, but I wholeheartedly disagree. I agree with the general concept of your linked essay, but disagree with your conclusions. Yes, in the very long term I believe that open source will "win".
However, we still need the GPL in the short term. I'm not an expert on licenses, but I believe a BSD or Apache license would allow anyone to come along, take wesnoth's code, close source it, make proprietary improvements, and make profit off it. Is that not correct? Therefore, the community loses and the "bad guys" win. Apple did something similar with freeBSD and their Mac OS X operating system, if I remember correctly. Yes, with the GPL someone could still make improvements and distribute it. However, they would also be required to release the code: allowing our community to fold the changes into our version, if we wished. In the grand scheme of things, where wesnoth is just one project of many, it wouldn't matter. However to me, and (I believe) the rest of the wesnoth community, it would matter very much. Personally, I think BSD and Apache licenses are toxic. Not the GPL. That being said, I see no reason to prevent Wesnoth from being on the iPhone (even though I would -never- buy an Apple product). The wesnoth developers nor Kyle Poole are taking away the user's freedom. The user's are -giving away- their freedoms by using an Apple product in the first place. The other way to look at it is that Apple is taking them away. Either way, it isn't Kyle or the Wesnoth developers' fault. Rather than take our product off of the store, I say we promote it as much as possible. Get the "normal user" to use it. Then, we can advertise more on the web site/the application description. Tell the user's more about what the GPL does for them (absence of vendor lock in, etc. Things that non-coders would appreciate. For instance, if Kyle Poole loses interest, someone else can easily continue supporting the application [Notice that these are -positives- for free software, -not- negatives against closed software, as the FSF too often uses] ). In this way, we are using Apple's store against them. By showing people that free (as in freedom) software is just as good, if not better, than proprietary products we will be undermining the philosophy that Apple is founded on. Also, we will be showing them that the free software way is better for them. Add an exception to the license if we must. However, I agree wholeheartedly with: "Every bit of effort we spend on ritual dances and politicking is effort we won't spend on the actual code". I think the developers that are threatening to remove their code and have a large problem with this are the ones in the wrong. Yes, it violates the technicalities of the GPL. However, the spirit of the GPL is still being sustained by Kyle Poole and the Wesnoth Project. It isn't their fault Apple doesn't support the GPL. While I am a FSF supporter, I believe we -must- adapt. Just because a platform is closed, doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to get our software onto it. If we can get our software and ideals into -every- segment of -every- market, we will slowly start changing the mindset of the average person. Slowly, we -will- win this "war"(for lack of a better term) against closed systems. Sincerely, Chris Carpenter P.S. I have nothing against you personally, Eric. I greatly enjoy your writings, especially the book *The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. *It is the first book I read on free software/open source.* *However, I think you compromise with business a little too much. Freedom should come first. On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Eric Raymond <[email protected]> wrote: > David White <[email protected]>: > > I feel that we should work to scour SVN logs to find a list of all > > developers of Wesnoth code and make best efforts to contact them and make > > them aware of the situation. > > This kind of mishigoss is one major reason I think the GPL has outlived its > usefulness. (For other reasons, see my essay "The Economic Case Against > the GPL" at <http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=928>.) > > Every bit of effort we spend on ritual dances and politicking is > effort we won't spend on the actual code. As long as we're doing the > ritual dance, I suggest we use it to move Wesnoth to a license that > isn't toxic in this way, like BSD or the Apache license. > -- > <a > href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/<http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/>">Eric > S. Raymond</a> > > _______________________________________________ > Wesnoth-dev mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/wesnoth-dev >
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