gnupic: GNU LIB for PIC
Subject:
RE: GNU LIB for PIC
From:
"James Newton. Admin 3" ####@####.####
Date:
15 Jul 2002 17:51:03 -0000
Message-Id: <002701c22c26$0cc1c4c0$0600a8c0@efplus.com>
I apologies in advance if this sounds cruel or uncaring: I don't mean to
anger anyone, but I do hope I can help people understand why the GPL is so
important to many people (including me)
Just as your companies don't care about the right of us to use our code and
always have access to derivative works (or at least they care more about
their profit than our access to code), GNU developers (in general; at least
me) don't care about the fact that your companies require copyright to make
a profit. If they need copyright, tell them to go pay for development of the
code. If we find our code in their binaries, they will be sued. Just as they
sue us (or worse, press criminal charges) when we make source code that
matches their binaries.
I don't blame them for wanting to make a profit or keep trade secrets....
That is the purpose of a company. I hope you and your kids eat better
because they make lots of money and pay you for your work. (Yes, I am
assuming some things here.) But don't blame me for not allowing your company
(or any other) to use my open source code to make that profit. Don't try to
steal our work and hide it by asking us to change to a different license or
"contributing" to the project with work done under a different license. You
work for your pay, let us work for our code.
Again, I'm not trying to make anyone mad, I'm just trying to help you
understand what you are asking when you want us to drop Stallman. I do both
contract and open source work (err... actually, not for gnupic specifically
as yet) as well and write code for my company. Some of that code is owned by
the payee of the contract, some by my company and some is owned by all
programmers. Moving any bit of code from one ownership to another without
acceptable compensation is theft. Period. Until the GPL, there was no way to
keep companies from stealing our code then throwing us in jail when we
decompiled their derivative works.
Please try to understand. Write good code. Buy Red Hat stock. Support the
FSF. Be proud of programming. <GRIN>
---
James Newton, webmaster piclist.com (former Admin #3)
####@####.####
1-619-652-0593 VM 1-208-279-8767 FAX
PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com or .org
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert S. Sciuk ####@####.####
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 13:32
Cc: ####@####.####
Subject: Re: GNU LIB for PIC
As I wade in on holy territory ... I might humbly suggest the BSD license
-- no restrictions, no glitches, no politics, no Stallman! The best of
all possible worlds -- IMHO.
Cheers,
Rob
