Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 18:13:15 -0500 From: David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: commercial software (definitive) Message-ID: <199805172313.SAA18388@nospam.hiwaay.net> In-Reply-To: Message from jak@cetlink.net (John Kelly) of "Sat, 16 May 1998 09:41:10 GMT." <355d5c06.1764517@mail.cetlink.net>
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John Kelly writes: > > It's sad there are executives who don't know how to take charge of > their own lawyers. Really? If one is going to pay a lawyer then one really should follow that advice else find another lawyer. Last thing you want is a lawyer who tells you anything you want to hear, because *then* you'll find out how good he/she is on court. > OTOH, there are plenty of lawyers who can work > with the GPL to produce an equivalent result. Those lawyers are already working to defend Microsoft. Possibly because they told management anything management wanted to hear. However, why bother to pay lawyers to "produce an equivalent result" with GPL when it can be done lawyer-free with BSD? Somebody must have a GPL fixation to even bother. Or some other social agenda. > >The code we are "hiding" you wouldn't want to touch anyway and most of > >it is userland code that would not be subject to licensing restrictions > >anyway. > > Then there's little real basis for objection to the GPL. Somebody's trolling for flames? Technology, advancement of: step by step advances which are the foundations of the next step advancing technology. At some point each step becomes public domain. Our patent system provides for exclusive use of a newly discovered technological advance in order for the inventor to possibly recover costs of the invention, and possibly reap profits from the invention. In exchange, a full disclosure of the invention goes on public record and the invention becomes public domain after 20 years. One doesn't *have* to patent an invention. One has that choice up to one year after its first public demonstration. Do I have to say the "new" invention is built upon "old" inventions? To me, the *BSD license is a mirror of our free enterprise economy. One can build upon the prior inventions. And chose after the invention whether to give it away in source and/or binary, sell it, rent it, etc. Its all about the inventor's freedom to chose. And the radical concept (which some can't swallow) that one could/should own the results of their own labor even if its based on the labor of others. GPL is a mirror of another economic system. One where "everyone" owns everything. Once your invention is discovered the "state" claims it as their own for the public good. Its not your choice (unless nobody finds out.) -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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