Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 00:20:57 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: dyson@iquest.net Cc: tlambert@primenet.com, lcremean@tidalwave.net, brett@lariat.org, jkh@zippy.cdrom.com, licia@o-o.org, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GPL *again* (was: New CODA release) Message-ID: <199902100020.RAA01583@usr08.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <199902100010.TAA61330@y.dyson.net> from "John S. Dyson" at Feb 9, 99 07:10:59 pm
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> > > The standard BSD license is already poison pilled. In fact, it > > > is quite fair by requiring attribution. Just be sure to provide > > > an extra 20-30K of CDROM space for attribution. :-). > > > > Wrong. > > > > http://sleepycat.com/license.net > > > > Only the GPL prevents BSD licensed code from being virulized; other > > licenses are not so kind as to exclude themselves from contaminating > > BSD licensed code. > > Well, I tend to think in terms of GPL, simply because it is predominant. > In the general case of poison pill-ing, you probably have to tune it > on a per license basis. Maybe I was wrong in thinking that the context > was GPL? The problem is that it's the GPL "poison pilled" against the UCB license, not the other way around. As long as that's the case, people can "route around" the GPL's brain damage to destructively license UCB code. That's what the SleepyCat people did to dbm 2.x. I'm not saying that they didn't add significant value; but they licensed the code under a commercially damaging license. A derivative work prepared by a third party would retain the virus, and, further, not be reversible. The only saving grace is that they are actively maintaining the code, so it hasn't floated elsewhere... yet. 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
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