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Date:      Mon, 17 Dec 2001 22:16:57 -0700
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen), Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop
Message-ID:  <4.3.2.7.2.20011217221419.02844e40@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <4hzo4hyv3c.o4h@localhost.localdomain>
References:  <20011218121011.E21649@monorchid.lemis.com> <20011218121011.E21649@monorchid.lemis.com>

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At 10:07 PM 12/17/2001, Gary W. Swearingen wrote:

>It's suprised me that it took almost 5 months on the MLs and 6 months
>before that on the NG for me to see the subject come up in even this
>half-serious -chat thread.

People like Greg have tried to squelch discussion of the issue.

>A problem with that statement is that it isn't true; another effect the
>GPL has on a binary is to require the source to be licensed under the
>GPL too.  One is a mere translation of the other and if one is a
>GPL-licensed "program", then the other must be too. It's all spelled out
>there in the GPL.  That part is even clear.
>
>A problem with the effect is that it might cost us time and money and
>legal liability to also supply the source code on request if we are
>distributing an embedded kernel. 

I have now worked on several embedded versions of FreeBSD. My clients
would not want to have that code confiscated by the GPL; in fact, it
would be disastrous for them if it happened.

>Another is that we might not like
>spending a penny to satisfy the bullying tactics of Stallman.  The
>GPL could easily have an exception for other free software without
>harming anything but Stallman's desire to bully people into doing it
>his way in his quest to punish closed-source software developers.

Agree 100%.

--Brett Glass


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