Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 20:44:33 -0700 From: "David Schwartz" <davids@webmaster.com> To: <cjclark@home.com> Cc: <adam@whizkidtech.net>, <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Richard Stallman came to town Message-ID: <000001be9cf2$ea4c4c00$021d85d1@whenever.youwant.to> In-Reply-To: <199905130332.XAA11617@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com>
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> I don't see how some people's ignorance can be blamed on GNU. It's
> like blaming the gun manufaturer for someone being shot, or the
> cigarette maker for someone getting cancer... oh, wait, we do blame
> that on them now-a-days.
If gun makers knowingly sold guns to people who didn't know how to use
them, it would be logical to hold them responsible. If cigarette makers
represented their cigarettes as safe to smoke while knowing they weren't, it
would be logical to hold them responsible.
I'm very curious why cigarette makers don't just come clean and say that
smoking can kill you. If you smoke cigarettes, you are taking a risk. Many
people knowingly take risks for pleasure, it's much like skiing.
There is a big difference between responsibility for actions taken with
full knowledge, and responsibility for duping people into making decisions
without full knowledge.
> > Everybody loses. This is typical. This is intentional.
>
> It is intentional. But Stallman would say that the fault lies not with GNU
> but with the proprietary software you were forced to use.
If he said that, it'd be awfully strange. Does he think there's something
wrong with refusing to require your customers to accept software with
disclaimers?
> Funny thing
> here is, if there was no GNU, how would this outcome have been any
> different? Would you still have most likely ended up with proprietary
> software?
Umm, no. It is my belief that many people GPL/GLL their code out of
ignorance. If not for the GPL/GLL they'd have released their code under less
restrictive terms, and then more people could use it and benefit from it.
> Out of curiousity, what was too restrictive about gdbm's license if
> you would have made the code changes freely available?
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DS
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