From owner-freebsd-chat Tue May 16 14: 3:35 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in (theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in [144.16.71.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id AC6BB37B797 for ; Tue, 16 May 2000 14:03:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in) Received: (qmail 72798 invoked from network); 16 May 2000 21:03:13 -0000 Received: from theory7.physics.iisc.ernet.in (qmailr@144.16.71.127) by theory1.physics.iisc.ernet.in with SMTP; 16 May 2000 21:03:13 -0000 Received: (qmail 13195 invoked by uid 211); 16 May 2000 21:03:12 -0000 Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 02:33:12 +0530 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: David Scheidt Cc: David Schwartz , Anatoly Vorobey , chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: RE: Why are people against GNU? WAS Re: 5.0 already? Message-ID: <20000517023312.B13129@physics.iisc.ernet.in> References: <20000517005633.B22400@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2i In-Reply-To: ; from dscheidt@enteract.com on Tue, May 16, 2000 at 03:54:51PM -0500 X-Operating-System: Linux 2.2.14 alpha X-Question: Do you enjoy reading pointless headers? Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org David Scheidt said on May 16, 2000 at 15:54:51: > On Wed, 17 May 2000, Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > > > From: Richard Stallman > > To: rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in > > Subject: Re: GPL question > > > > Is it ok to license one's software under "version 2 of the GPL, and > > only that version"? > > > > It is a bad idea, because when we have GPL version 3 and release other > > programs under version 3, your program will be stuck at GPL version 2. > > And it will be illegal to copy code between your program and all the > > other GPL-covered programs that are released under GPL version 3. > > > > Of course, if you release code under the standard "version n, or any later > version", and FSF gets bought out by Microsoft^Wthe forces of evil, and > releases version 3 of the license which says "screw you, we get all the > rights", you can't do much but whine. If it really ever became an issue, > the original author -- or his copyright inheritor -- can re-release under > the new license. It is *already* out there under version 2. Nobody will be *forced* to reissue it under version 3. If Microsoft did do what you say, it would be no worse than if they took BSD code and put their own license on it -- they can't take back the earlier license from people who already received it. It will not stop people distributing existing versions, developing them further under GPL 2, and *not* putting GPL 3 on it. Rahul. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message