Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 14:04:32 -0500 (EST) From: "John S. Dyson" <dyson@iquest.net> To: brett@lariat.org (Brett Glass) Cc: dyson@iquest.net, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The GPL and the Robinson-Patman Act Message-ID: <199902231904.OAA03725@y.dyson.net> In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990223010632.00b594b0@mail.lariat.org> from Brett Glass at "Feb 23, 99 01:08:06 am"
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Brett Glass said: > At 03:02 AM 2/23/99 -0500, John S. Dyson wrote: > > >RMS's lawyers are likely bigger than a reasonable size of us could pool > >together and afford to hire. > > Why? Does he have huge amounts of cash? If so, why does he live in > a cubicle at MIT? > Doesn't FSF have a pool of cash, and perhaps an agenda that really sounds good to the liberal elite? This is a perfect case for organizations who have the attitude of "knowing what is best for everyone else." The silly manifesto reeks of that attitude. > > >What *will* happen, is that times will be less fat in the future, than > >they are now... People will end up doing less and less for free, and worry > >more about feeding their kids, parents, and maybe themselves. At that > >point, the gratis programming efforts will diminish, and the jobless > >programmers (if it ever happens) will wish that there is more code under > >the BSD license, and avoid anything that they can't profit on based upon > >their skills... Either that, they'll be picking fruit in the fields... :-(. > > We'll see. I personally think that the legality of the GPL should be > determined regardless. It's better when one knows what one is up against. > Maybe I don't *hate* GPL nearly as much as just wanting to make sure that people know that they are following a lazy path that has been paved by those who "know more than they do." People who are innovative IP workers need to consciously control what they do with their works. Just because someone is a good programmer, doesn't mean that they really understand the effects of the disposition of their works. Note that I used to work in the military complex, and had real problems with the disposition of my work (even though I am a conservative hawk.) When things get up-front and personal, feelings change. In the case of my work, I decided that just hacking code (or making weapons) wasn't good enough. I really want to make sure that work that I do goes to a cause that supports the ability of other people like me to feed their kids, etc. GPL is just not that kind of license. The GPL legacy isn't for the programmer, but optimizes the exploitation of programmers, even more so in some respects than proprietary works. -- John | Never try to teach a pig to sing, dyson@iquest.net | it makes one look stupid jdyson@nc.com | and it irritates the pig. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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