From owner-freebsd-chat  Wed Dec 19 22:58:44 2001
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Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 23:57:52 -0700
To: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen),
	Jeremy Karlson <karlj000@unbc.ca>
From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Subject: Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop
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At 09:08 PM 12/19/2001, Gary W. Swearingen wrote:

>Please tell us how the GPL restricts the ability of someone to do
>something "proprietary" any more than the BSD licence does (or the MIT
>license, which I suppose RMS knew before creating the GPL, does)?
>I don't think you can, because that isn't the point of the GPL.

In this argument, and in the paragraphs that follow, methinks
you are falling prey to Stallman's Humpty Dumpty-ish redefinition
of the word "proprietary." 

The correct definition of "proprietary" is as follows: A product
or protocol is proprietary when others cannot produce products that 
interoperate with it, are compatible with it, or are equivalent to 
it. 

What Stallman refers to as "proprietary" software is in fact 
commercial software. Stallman is leveraging the strong negative
connotations of the word "proprietary" and also avoiding the
use of the word "commercial," which would highlight the fact that
he is anti-business.

--Brett


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