Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 00:16:13 +0200 From: Eivind Eklund <eivind@FreeBSD.ORG> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: spork <spork@super-g.com>, James Howard <howardjp@wam.umd.edu>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Free VMWare and open BIOS! Message-ID: <19990520001613.B69023@bitbox.follo.net> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.37.19990519114402.00b37230@localhost>; from Brett Glass on Wed, May 19, 1999 at 11:44:51AM -0600 References: <4.2.0.37.19990519103533.00b3d380@localhost> <Pine.BSF.4.00.9905191327060.4442-100000@super-g.inch.com> <4.2.0.37.19990519114402.00b37230@localhost>
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On Wed, May 19, 1999 at 11:44:51AM -0600, Brett Glass wrote: > At 01:31 PM 5/19/99 -0400, spork wrote: > > >> I doubt that this would do much good at this point. The page makes very > > > frequent mention of the fact that the project is being sponsored and > > > supported by Red Hat. > > > >I hope this won't stop you from emailing them. You must have a form > >letter by now, right? > > Nope. Could you (and others) suggest some text which might be good > to include in such a letter? I notice you've put your new software package (XXX) under the GPL. I'm sending you this letter in the hopes of getting you the re-thing that decision, as I've noticed a lot of people GPLing software without thinking the consequences carefully through. My personal goal is to make sure the world gets the maximum amount of useful free software; the GPL is in conflict with that. As always, you should choose your license in order to support your goals. The goal the GPL has been written to support is to stop the creation of properitary software[1]; if you goals that are higher prioritized than this, you should probably choose a different license from the GPL. <insert description of the conditions necessary for the GPL to create more free software than a truely free license here - I've sent these to Brett previously>. If you feel you need to protect the code from "exploitation", consider using the NPL (with the initial developer clause) instead of the GPL. This gives you a way to later in time find that conditions have changed, and that benefit may be had from changing the licensing. Remember: Releasing truly free code is a way to help kill the juggernauts (like Microsoft); they can always aquire code by cross-licensing or paying for it, while the code you give out allow the same benefit to the creative startups that will kill them. Eivind. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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