Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 21:45:16 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: <chat@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: GPL vs BSD Licence Message-ID: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNCEJIEPAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <p06002003bdab256f8f0e@[10.0.1.3]>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: Brad Knowles [mailto:brad@stop.mail-abuse.org] > Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 3:32 PM > To: Ted Mittelstaedt > Cc: chat@freebsd.org > Subject: RE: GPL vs BSD Licence > > > At 3:05 PM -0800 2004-10-31, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > > > And as I've already told you, there is no guarentee that anything > > posted long long ago has any relevance to today. > > Has the GPL changed since then? Has the BSD license changed > since then? Have the laws changed since then? > Whether they have changed isn't relevant. What is, is the interpretation of them. The interpretation of the laws and licenses is always in flux. Certainly, GPL is a central point of the SCO lawsuit, which has not been resolved. If you were to get sued, to defend yourself your lawyer would be reviewing past court rulings to assist in building a defense. He would not just walk in to the courtroom and say "my client is safe because the license and the law says this" unless he were not very smart. Instead he's going to cite all prior rulings that could be interpreted to support your case, with emphasis on recent rulings. > If none of these things have changed, then I don't see how they > would be any less relevant today than they were at the time they were > originally said. > Because our understanding of anything - even so-called facts - is always contextual. I say the speed of light is so-and-so many miles per second - well, I'm right, right? No. It depends on how strong any gravitational fields happen to be that are near what I'm observing. In short, contextual understanding. Laws are very, very contextual. I might ask, has the US Constitution and Article 1 changed at all since they were written? Don't you think the DMCA modified our interpretation of Article 1 - just a few years ago? The world is only full of absolutes to religious fanatics talking about their preferred diety and what that diety says is true. > > Moreover, if you want to dredge up this old flame war, Why particularly do YOU regard this as a flame war? Do you have some personal vested interest in the GPL and you feel like your being personally flamed that people are pulling it's pants down again? Have I blundered into a Linux mailing list by chance? > > > > If you want the thread dead, don't keep it alive by continuing to add > > to it. > > Let me be the second person to request that you let this thread > die yet once again. > And let me repeat that if you want it to die, stop posting. Ted
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