Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2001 18:31:24 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.ORG>, "Pedro F. Giffuni" <pfg1+@pitt.edu> Cc: Craig Harding <crh@outpost.co.nz>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Big companies and the GPL (was: FreeBSD spokesman (was: So what happens to FreeBSD now?)) Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20010705182444.04522650@localhost> In-Reply-To: <20010705183231.C657@sydney.worldwide.lemis.com> References: <3B4266BB.AE0CE214@pitt.edu> <20010626174756.A61831@blackhelicopters.org> <200106260901.AA23134284@stmail.pace.edu> <20010626122845.A11960@xor.obsecurity.org> <20010626214230.D461@canyon.nothing-going-on.org> <20010626174756.A61831@blackhelicopters.org> <20010702211810.B325@sydney.worldwide.lemis.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20010703141550.045f5340@localhost> <20010703134058.A9446@mooseriver.com> <3B426349.B50B1A4D@outpost.co.nz> <3B4266BB.AE0CE214@pitt.edu>
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At 05:32 PM 7/5/2001, Greg Lehey wrote: >Disclaimer: I do not speak for IBM. Everything I say below is >available on the web somewhere, but I can't quote you a URL. > >IBM is not silent about the GPL. They have had some issues with it, >neither the ones I have, nor the ones Brett and co. have, Terry Lambert has described these issues at length, and they are very much the same as the ones I raise. >so they >ended up writing the IBM Public Licence (IPL). I don't know exactly >how they differ, though I suppose that's an exercise for the reader. >Stallman has agreed to the IPL, though, so it can't bee too different >from the GPL. As I recall, the IPL isn't viral. As for Stallman "agreeing" to it: if a license is not the GPL, he will do so at best grudgingly. >IBM's stance on GPL'd software is that there is a significant quantity >of software of general use which can be released to the community >without adversely affecting the bottom line. That's what it's doing. >IBM will *not* release software under the BSD license, because that >would enable its competitors to take the software and use it to their >own purposes. I doubt that's true. Terry? My personal take is that IBM, being a large company, has some people who are intelligent and worldly wise and some who are foolish (usually, the marketing department) and/or inclined to embrace ideology or follow whatever seems like the latest trend. The smart ones will stay as far as possible from the GPL as possible. The ones that are taken in by Stallman's rhetoric, or blinded by Linux hype, will embrace the GPL at their peril and their company's. This is likewise true of HP. It has hired Bruce Perens, whose activities will likely gravely hurt the company's interests. I cannot tell whether this was done out of sheer foolishness or because they want to keep an eye on him.... --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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