Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 07:24:46 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: dyson@iquest.net Cc: tlambert@primenet.com, jkh@zippy.cdrom.com, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: O'Reilly article: Whence the Source: Untangling the Open Source/Free Software Debate Message-ID: <4.1.19990313072013.04020ba0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <199903130912.EAA01252@y.dyson.net> References: <4.1.19990312162726.03ff1c40@localhost>
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At 04:12 AM 3/13/99 -0500, John S. Dyson wrote: >What we really need is a carefully constructed research paper on >the various licensing terms, and the ramifications of each. I am >not the right person to do that. Maybe not alone. But you have made a lot of good points on the subject. Would you be willing to contribute? >After the creation of that paper, then we need to accumlate the >text of each license, and create a magazine article, using the >research paper and the license text (properly credited) as source >material. > >The mag article would talk about the various aspects of software >licensing in what is the traditional "free software" world. For >example, a table would be created, describing in short and clear >terms the freedoms (I hate that word) and limitations for each >person in the foodchain, given several kinds license. I agree. In particular, the developer's perspective and the user's perspective are significant. The developer needs to understand why he loses under the GPL, and the consumer needs to recognize that it forecloses commerical options and therefore deprives him/her of choice. >The key to understanding the licenses is to be able to picture the >flows of source code, binary, money, etc for each person in the >pipeline. Also, it needs to be clarified what the predominant >modes of profit are with each form of license, the ownership and >control issues, and the relicensing issues. Agreed. >This would be an interesting undertaking, and I would be willing >to provide information for some of a mag article, but am not >willing (or able) to write it. I suspect that spending a few >hours with a draw package, I could produce some interesting info >about some of the licenses. (BTW, this wouldn't necessarily be >PRO-BSDL, but would inform so that the right choice for a given >situation could be made.) Sounds good. What sorts of graphics do you have in mind? Tables? Charts? >My whole thing about licenses isn't that any one license is the >"right" one, but that people must make informed choices. It is >a responsibility of those who have influence to provide information >for the choices. The problem with this license thing is that >there are too few people with that responsibility associated >with noteriety, who are being open and straightforward enough to >do proper justice to their userbase. Exactly. If anything, the major players (Stallman, ESR) are actually being disingenuous about their goals when they appear in public. However, their writings do express (betray?) their true intentions and can be quoted in such a paper.... --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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