Date: 29 Mar 2002 23:46:10 -0800 From: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen) To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Chip Morton <tech_info@threespace.com>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: run Microsoft Office without Windows Message-ID: <m2r8m2birh.8m2@localhost.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20020329211251.03040d70@nospam.lariat.org> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20020329211251.03040d70@nospam.lariat.org>
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Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> writes:
> I think it smacks of hypocrisy. Codeweavers just recently insisted upon
> converting the WINE code base from an X11-like license to the LGPL, because
> they claimed that it was wrong for other companies to make money by doing
> their own products based on WINE. And here they've come out with one....
Brett, I usually agree with you, but I wonder if you've paraphrased them
correctly. They, like any other proprietary-minded user of copyleft
(including the FSF), have an us-verse-them philosophy which would lead
one to say something like:
I'll have to tolerate others making some money off my free [sic]
software because it otherwise wouldn't qualify as free [sic]
software, BUT it is wrong for them to not let me then use their
derivatives of it in return (which conveniently, thanks to copyleft,
just happens to include any of the other's software they choose to
combine with my free [sic] software). It's just not fair. Waaaa.
They can't use mine unless I can use theirs. It would give them a
competive advantage. X11-like licenses don't keep derivatives free.
We must acknowledge that it makes some sense in the proprietory way of
thinking that Microsoft, Stallman, and others have popularized, sadly
even in the open source and academic scientific/research worlds where
true sharing was once common. I only wish that people who understand
that sharing isn't the same thing as trading and who don't mind sharing
(like most BSDers) could do a better job rallying together and promoting
the philosophy. Too many people just care about software features and,
given copyleft's advantages of mind-share and virility, we should
promote other reasons to use non-GNU/Linux software like FreeBSD.
And I don't blame companies like Codeweavers for acting selfishly;
that's what companies are for. They'll only share or act unselfish to
the extent that there's some benefit. And I don't see their hypocracy;
they could keep some of their work secret no matter what open source
license WINE is under. (And I don't consider "acting unselfish"
hypocritical in that context; it's a well-established well-honored
behavior which hurts nobody.)
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