Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 20 Jun 2001 13:34:16 -0600
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: interesting licensing quote (GPL)
Message-ID:  <4.3.2.7.2.20010620133149.04876ca0@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <20010620151210.A99772@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
At 08:12 AM 6/20/2001, j mckitrick wrote:

>   This article made me think about my own opinions of the BSD and GPL
>licenses. I think I tend to come across as a bit of a GPL zealot, but I 
>can see how in some cases, BSD is a better choice. If the BSD sockets code 
>had been under the GPL, Microsoft wouldn't have used it, and likely as not they
>would have developed a completely incompatible TCP/IP programming interface. 
>As it is, sockets have become something of a standard, and Unix and Windows 
>programmers can understand and modify each other's TCP/IP code
>without too much trouble. So in this case, the BSD code has won a victory 
>for interoperability.

And for standardization. The GPL discourages standardization by driving a
wedge between commercial developers and developers of GPLed software. They
must work from different code bases. And since even EXAMINING the GPLed
code could make a commercial developer subject to accusation that he's
created a derivative work, analyzing the two to see WHY they're not
compatible is not feasible. 

--Brett


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.3.2.7.2.20010620133149.04876ca0>