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Date:      Mon, 18 Jan 1999 14:57:02 -0600
From:      Jacques Vidrine <n@nectar.com>
To:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Attempt to relicense BSD code under the GPL 
Message-ID:  <199901182057.OAA02006@spawn.nectar.com>
In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990118133648.064c47f0@mail.lariat.org> 
References:  <4.1.19990118114510.0475fa90@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19990118095621.04517460@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19990118092136.0465ede0@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19990118092136.0465ede0@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19990118095621.04517460@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19990118114510.0475fa90@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19990118133648.064c47f0@mail.lariat.org>

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On 18 January 1999 at 13:40, Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> wrote:
[snip]
> Look at the site more closely. There are several examples of companies
> who have created specialized embedded OSes for their products using
> the kit. They're now out of luck.... They'd have to give away their
> hard work to keep doing it.

What is your point?  Those companies made a decision when they
selected software that is GPL'd.  A bad decision, IMO, and yours
too, I would gather.  

[snip]
> >I'm not disagreeing with you on this point.  I advocate BSD-like licenses
> >over GPL.  It is the University's perogative to license its software
> >as it sees fit, however.  
> 
> The software was paid for by OUR money -- by a government grant. The
> University has no right to restrict our use of it.

Again, this has nothing to do with BSD code being ``relicensed'' as
GPL code. 

Not to mention the fact that your statement is absurd -- I suppose
that we American citizens should have full access to all code written
by the U.S. Government because we paid for it?  

> Yes, there is. The collection includes BSD code and is licensed as
> a whole under the GPL. It's thus "infected." For good.

Brett, have you even read the doc/licensing.tex file?  Quoting:

   Because much of the code in the \oskit\ was ``donated'' by external
   projects there are a plethora of additional copyrights and licences,
   but their requirements are straightforward.
   [snip]   
   To help clarify matters, the Acknowledgements section, below,
   describes which parts of the \oskit\ are covered by which license(s).
   [snip -- the Acknowledgements section is more than verbose enough]

Have you even looked at the distribution?  Source files from other
projects retain the original copyright notice.

I asked for you to show me where any BSD code was being presented with
a GPL license (but you snipped that).  I take it that you have not
found any?  I have seen some files that have a mix of BSD and
University of Utah code, and bear both GPL and BSD copyright notices
at the top.  This is sloppy, and will probably result in troubles for
someone someday (recall UCB/AT&T's troubles).  But it is hardly the
transgression that you seem to want it to be.

I think you do a great disservice to the open software community 
by slinging this mud, meritless as it is.

Jacques Vidrine / n@nectar.com / nectar@FreeBSD.org




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