Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 23:27:01 -0400 From: "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com> To: "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@attbi.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Fwd: ESR/OSI's Unix/Linux-history-laden treatise on SCO vs. IBM Message-ID: <20030521032701.GB32155@thyrsus.com> In-Reply-To: <xxbrxxw0b0.rxx@localhost.localdomain> References: <p05200f42baf03c5204ce@[192.168.254.205]> <20030520203225.GA30587@thyrsus.com> <xxbrxxw0b0.rxx@localhost.localdomain>
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Gary W. Swearingen <swear@attbi.com>: > First let me say that I was sorry, after posting my typically-critical > comments, that I had not commented on more of the good things about the > treatise, beyond recommending it as interesting. No offense taken. > > This supposed "copyleftic whopper" is something I have observed in > > most of my peers since 1982, long before copyleft was invented. > > And that was great; but then Stallman came along an convinced too many > people to replace "all licit purposes" with "open-source-only purposes", > effectively replacing the GIFT of a license to derive with a > FEE-LICENSING contract, with payment in the form of a cross-license of > the deriver's own source code. It's fine for us to argue about among ourselves. But from the point of view of any outsider, you're engaging in a theological dispute of *zero* interest. I am therefore ignoring this distinction, very deliberately. > Of course, if the treatise is going to be aimed at courts. But it sure > didn't look like it WAS. It seemed way too coversational (?) for that. > ("pure nostalgia trip"; "brazen mendacity"; "insult our competence"; > "When OSDL spun up"; " is false and insulting. It is also dishonest."; > "They know better."; "SCO's 10Ks"; etc.) Even I wouldn't dare include > my pot-shot (more of a broadside?) at the courts, if writing for them, > but I wouldn't be so "entertaining", either. Which is one way of observing that you're not as skilled a propagandist as I am. Trust me on this. I've had practice :-). Anyway, my wife is a practicing Phildelphia lawyer who went over the text line by line. She told me to be *more* aggressive. > In any case, you've done a lot better job than I ever could or would do. > Thanks for doing it as well as you have; it showed LOTS of work. You're welcome. -- <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
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