Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 15:12:10 +0100 From: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: interesting licensing quote Message-ID: <20010620151210.A99772@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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I found this on a forum about the WSJ article:
<quote>
This article should make both the knee-jerk MS-bashers and the knee-jerk
MS-defenders stop and think for a moment. As the author explained very
convincingly, Microsoft has used open source BSD code quite selfishly,
for its own ends, but has done so quite legally.
There isn't anything apparently illegal about what Microsoft has done
with the BSD code, but it is perhaps hypocritical, considering their
recent open-source bashing.
This article made me think about my own opinions of the BSD and GPL
licenses. I think I tend to come across as a bit of a GPL zealot, but I
can see how in some cases, BSD is a better choice. If the BSD sockets code
had been under the GPL, Microsoft wouldn't have used it, and likely as not they
would have developed a completely incompatible TCP/IP programming interface.
As it is, sockets have become something of a standard, and Unix and Windows
programmers can understand and modify each other's TCP/IP code
without too much trouble. So in this case, the BSD code has won a victory
for interoperability.
</quote>
Jonathon
--
"It is through will alone I set my mind in motion...."
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