Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 16:15:15 -0500 (CDT) From: "Jasper O'Malley" <jooji@webnology.com> To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Producing non-GPLed tools for FreeBSD Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.02.9810201605110.13084-100000@mercury.webnology.com> In-Reply-To: <199810201921.MAA00548@dingo.cdrom.com>
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On Tue, 20 Oct 1998, Mike Smith wrote:
> The hypocrisy comes from misleadingly calling this "free".
I don't think it's misleading at all. The software costs nothing, and the
source is available to anyone who wants it. Sounds pretty free to me.
> If it were truly free, Brett could do what he liked with it. In point
> of fact, GPL'ed code is no more "free" than proprietary code.
How so? Proprietary code costs money. GPL code is by its nature free
for anyone to read or incorporate into their own work. If they don't
like the caveats that come with the freedom to incorporate, tough nuts.
Then they do what Brett is doing, and start from scratch. In the end,
though, authors still have a right to determine how their work is used
and/or distributed; if they're philosophically opposed to the concept of
closed-source proprietary software, they use the GPL. I'm not a
particularly big fan of the GPL myself, but I completely understand the
motives of those who are.
Cheers,
Mick
The Reverend Jasper P. O'Malley dotdot:jooji@webnology.com
Systems Administrator ringring:asktheadmiral
Webnology, LLC woowoo:http://www.webnology.com/~jooji
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