Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 11:42:24 -0800 (PST) From: Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com> To: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@flood.ping.uio.no> Cc: Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com>, "Robert V. Baron" <rvb@cs.cmu.edu>, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Coda license term changes ... GPL Message-ID: <199901101942.LAA86650@apollo.backplane.com> References: <Pine.BSF.3.95.990108140102.5096A-100000@current1.whistle.com> <xzpvhifkkbx.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>
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:Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com> writes:
:> On 8 Jan 1999, Robert V. Baron wrote:
:> > - Coda is now GPL'd - primarily because we want to indicate that we are
:> > really an OSS project.
:> OSS != GPL.. what about PERL?
:
:Linux advocates will have the public believe that the BSD license is
:meant to trick people into donating software which you then make
:proprietary and sell for big bucks. Therefore, in the eyes of all too
:many people, OSS == GPL.
:
:DES
:--
:Dag-Erling Smorgrav - des@flood.ping.uio.no
Oh, I don't think it's that bad. The press I've seen has treated
BSD/GPL OSS issues quite fairly.
Whenever anyone asks me why I like BSD over GPL I always say "Because
I *want* other people to be able to make money from my OSS work". And
on the unreasoning fear that someone would 'take over' a BSDized project,
I point out the resource requirements that make it unlikely. Even
commercial companies would find it difficult and expensive to permanently
split off their own branch - R&D is always expensive. Customize? Of
course! Permanent split? Unlikely. Proprietization arguments go the
same route - a company that 'steals' BSDized code in order to proprietize
it has a greater chance of being forced into using an open standard then
it has in being able to force a proprietized version unto others.
Sometimes it pays to not be paranoid. For commercial companies, the bottom
line is the great equalizer.
-Matt
Matthew Dillon Engineering, HiWay Technologies, Inc. & BEST Internet
Communications & God knows what else.
<dillon@backplane.com> (Please include original email in any response)
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