Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 18:02:23 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> To: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Cc: Dirk Myers <dirkm@teleport.com>, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD, .Net comments - any reponse to this reasoning? Message-ID: <20010702180222.A2667@hades.hell.gr> In-Reply-To: <20010702152649.A18127@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>; from jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org on Mon, Jul 02, 2001 at 03:26:49PM %2B0100 References: <20010630174743.A85268@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010630173455.T344@teleport.com> <20010701032900.A93049@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010701132353.W344@teleport.com> <20010702152649.A18127@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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On Mon, Jul 02, 2001 at 03:26:49PM +0100, j mckitrick wrote: > | There's *no* license that can trump the rights of the copyright > | holder. There's *no* license that can allow someone who doesn't own > | the copyright to close off the code. But licenses which meet the > | Open Source definition (let alone the Free Software definition) don't > | allow the copyright holder to revoke the permissions in the license. > > So what you are saying, then, is that 'Free Software' in the FSF definition > is not just GPL'ed, but also has the copyright signed over to the FSF so > they can 'insure' that the code will remain forever GPL'ed? If so, that is > damn scary. Yup. Thats the idea. See what Stallman has said for XEmacs [ quote taken from XEmacs site, URL: http://www.xemacs.org/About/XEmacsVsGNUemacs.html ] The FSF Point of View Richard Stallman writes: XEmacs is GNU software because it's a modified version of a GNU program. And it is GNU software because the FSF is the copyright holder for most of it, and therefore the legal responsibility for protecting its free status falls on us whether we want it or not. This is why the term "GNU XEmacs" is legitimate. But in another sense it is not GNU software, because we can't use XEmacs in the GNU system: using it would mean paying a price in terms of our ability to enforce the GPL. Some of the people who have worked on XEmacs have not provided, and have not asked other contributors to provide, the legal papers to help us enforce the GPL. I have managed to get legal papers for some parts myself, but most of the XEmacs developers have not helped me get them. I think that pretty much explains what *is* and *it not* GNU software. -giorgos To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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