From owner-freebsd-chat Wed Feb 24 13:29:50 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from smtp03.primenet.com (smtp03.primenet.com [206.165.6.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 23E921186D for ; Wed, 24 Feb 1999 13:28:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tlambert@usr04.primenet.com) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp03.primenet.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id LAA27929; Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:34:09 -0700 (MST) Received: from usr04.primenet.com(206.165.6.204) via SMTP by smtp03.primenet.com, id smtpd027908; Wed Feb 24 11:34:06 1999 Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr04.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id LAA03092; Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:33:52 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199902241833.LAA03092@usr04.primenet.com> Subject: Re: The GPL and the Robinson-Patman Act To: marko@uk.radan.com (Mark Ovens) Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 18:33:48 +0000 (GMT) Cc: tlambert@primenet.com, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <19990224010204.B679@localhost> from "Mark Ovens" at Feb 24, 99 01:02:04 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > > The FSF has a pool of money for sueing people set aside and all > > ready to go, with a specific emphasis on corporations who, god help > > them, release code that includes patented algorithms or processes > > under the GPL. > > > > That almost sounds like a contradiction in terms; an organization > representing *free* software having vast financial resources. I > presume their funds come from donations from the likes of Red Hat, > Cygnus etc.? It's not. If an organization has a patent, and it releases GPL'ed code incorporating technology covered by the patent, then the GPL will be used to tear down the patent protection. This is intentional. I wish people would quit telling me what they think the "spirit of the GPL" was intended to be, without their having read the manifesto; it seems to be endemic to zealots to not read scripture. If anyone rememebrs history, that's where the Knight's Templar and the Spanish Inquisition derived from. > > RMS hates intellectual property law, period. He will use his > > instrument (the GPL) to make his manifesto reality, at any > > reasonable opportunity. > > I am interested in the history of all this, such as why RMS manages > to have such a powerful influence over so many people (I believe > it started with a paper he wrote whilst at MIT(?)) that instills > such fervour in support of the GPL (he's not the anti-Christ is he > ;-) ) but I don't want to drag this thread down an inappropriate > path so do you know of any URLs or books that will provide this > information? http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message