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"Ed is the standard text editor."

"Ed is the standard text editor."

GPL is "free" as in free beer - its use encourages the distribution of free software. Public domain is "free" as in free speech - no restrictions on how individuals can distribute it. Why is this so hard to understand?

Releasing a work like The Wind in the Willows under the GPL is rare. You might be surprised to learn that in Kenneth Grahame's time (1859-1932) it was practically unheard-of.

You see, the GPL is largely about programs and source code.

Releasing programs -- not books -- under the GPL promotes freedom in the use and modification of software -- not including The Wind in the Willows, which is conventionally regarded as a book.

Emacs is the one true editor. Convert heathen!

GNU have their own logo!

Exactly. People often get confused about what the GPL actually says, and assume it's about ownership of the code, but if you actually read the text, it's about distribution. Here's the text of Section 7 of v2 of the licence:

7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. (My emphasis added.)

If the GPL is invalid, then GPLd programs can't be distributed at all without relicensing them somehow.

That'll be a GPL3: we've been on GPL2 since 1991.

A whole lot of GPL software specifies that it's distributed under "version X or any later version", or doesn't specify a version (which means you can use any version, according to section 9). So your solution would work fine for those things. It wouldn't work for Linux, though, since Linux is explicitly distributed under version 2 only.

Regardless of anything else, the US law governs the export of things from the US. Where they were created is of no consequence.

Imagine a piece of software written entirely in, say, Russia. While I'm no expert in Russian law, it's quite conceivable to me that this piece of software could be perfectly legal under Russian law to export to Syria. However, if an American had it, it could be illegal to export it to Syria from America.

So, if this piece of software was brought to the US from Russia, then exported to Syria, it would be in violation of US laws, even though it's perfectly legal to export that software to Syria from Russia, and the software wasn't created in the US.

The US can't say "No one anywhere can export Linux to Syria," because they don't have jurisdiction. The US can say "No one in America can export Linux to Syria," regardless of where it was written or any other facts, because they do have jurisdiction (leaving aside any questions of the constitutionality of these laws).

As a practical matter, as sphealey points out, many of the distributors of Linux (Linus, Red Hat, etc) reside in the US, and are subject to US law. Thus, Linux will generally conform to US export-control law because Linus doesn't want to go to jail and Red Hat doesn't want to go out of business. Certainly the US government couldn't keep some enterprising Russians from rexporting Linux, and they also couldn't prevent them from forking it and providing a product which violates US laws (such as, for example, the DMCA). But, as a practical matter, today, so many of the authors and distributors of Linux reside in the US that conformity with US law is an unofficial goal of Linux.

There is a similar (reverse) situation going on with the GIF patent. While the US patent behind the GIF image format expired in 2003, the European and Canadian ones won't expire until June, 2004. So, much open-source software, developed in the US, doesn't yet include GIF support because of the European patents. It's not because Europe suddenly has some extra US jurisdiction, but because the authors of these products do not consider it worth it to exclude European developers, or to have different distributions for different regions, etc.

See what the FSF has to say about this.

The FSF now considers the APSL to be a free software license with two major practical problems, reminiscent of the NPL:

* It is not a true copyleft, because it allows linking with other files which may be entirely proprietary.
* It is incompatible with the GPL.

For this reason, we recommend you do not release new software using this license; but it is ok to use and improve software which other people release under this license.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/apsl.html

Did I interpret that wrong, or are you asking why is it being called the General Public License?

If I interpreted it right, it's probably because it's what GNU calls it. If it was the GGPL, GNU General Public License might make sense.

Of course, it's possible I've totally misunderstood you...

Stupid patents are not arguments against IP in general.

Using the term "IP" or "intellectual property" in that context prejudices one of the most important discussions society needs to have about how to handle policy in copyright, patent, trademark, mask rights, and all the other diverse laws that phrase lumps together. That term makes it seem like there's one overarching principal which is being reapplied for different kinds of works, but that's not so. Some of the areas covered even conflict (patents and copyrights, for instance, conflict for any developer or would-be user of a free software MP3 player in countries that observe software patents. Thomson's extant patent claim on MP3 conflicts with the power a copyright holder has to distribute their work).

Getting back to the topic at hand--software patents--these are completely unnecessary and one need not look back very far in computing history to see why: these patents did not exist when computing was starting up. Many corporations invested in personal computing without leveraging these patents. Therefore, we don't need them. We have them because corporations want to guarantee profit for working less.

I've already said it countless times, but if you haven't already read The Right to Read, do it now while you still have the right to do it. From what I witness it might change in the near future. That's funny that we all were laughing out loud at Richard when he wrote his "stupid dystopian science fiction which will never happen outside of a paranoid mind foolishly guarded with a tinfoil hat" and at the same time we all kept allowing it to slowly happen. And who looks like a fool now? Sadly, not Richard but us. It certainly doesn't make me feel proud at all. The DMCA is the fruit of our own inaction, our own inertia, our own plain stupidity. We all have to remember that. We have to take the responsibility if we ever want to overthrow the law system we don't agree with. The DMCA was introduced democratically and it can be fought only democratically, where everyone takes the responsibility for the will of the majority. It is a great time to renew our EFF memberships because that is our freedom at risk.

While that will apply to commercially produced equipment, it probably won't apply to open source projects. One such open source project might be GNUradio, which I'm sure will lead to another battle of open source/free software getting accused of being only writen/used for piracy.

While I profess that I don't actually watch any TV, ever. I must say I'm really interested in using GNUradio to broadcast my own HDTV TV Station Channel.

Ah yes, B.S.T.V. hijacking the airwaves near you soon.... or maybe not.

If you haven't already read The Right to Read, do it while you still have the right to do it. From what I witness it might change in the near future. Funny that we all were laughing at Richard when he wrote his "dystopian science fiction which will never happen outside of a paranoid mind guarded with a tinfoil hat" and at the same time we all kept allowing it to slowly happen. And who looks like a fool now? Not Richard but us. It certainly doesn't make me feel proud at all.

The mindset you are talking about did not "just kind of happen". It is the result of a deliberate campaign by OSS and others from which RMS has continually fought to distinguish the Free Software Movement.

Based on your posts, I really don't believe that you are fully aware of the underlying philosophy and motivation behind the GPL. Please go to http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html and check out any of RMS speaches on the Free Software Movement. You'll be surprised how clear he is on all of this...

Of course, I imagine someday soon MS will wake up and go "Waitaminute, if that crazy GPL is invalid, that means all that 'You buy it but not really, you're just renting it' part of our EULA might not be valid either. Crap!"

They already think that, that's what UCITA is intended to fix.

Perhaps if CVS were easier to use, or of development teams more regularly used something other than CVS

Xouvert is making use of the Arch RCS, which seamlessly handles distributed repositories (each developer generally has his own local repository). There is no single point of failure; if the owner of the "master repository" isn't doing his job, any other repository can be used just as easily.

Of course, Arch also properly handles file moves and renames. That will enable Xouvert to make rather sweeping changes to the XF86 source organization, without losing the ability to sync with XF86 CVS.

Xouvert has declared "solidarity with the Y project", but what does that really matter. The future of the linux(+*bsd) desktop is X, just not XFree86. Either Xouvert, or some other fork of the XFree86 code, but the XFree86 leadership have shown that they are not interested in making a better X.

Yes. GNUcr can handle it just fine. Try AOL Keyword: GNU's Not Unix for a download.

When you work on the core of X, on programs such as the X server, Xlib, and Xt, there is a practical reason not to use copyleft. The XFree86 group does an important job for the community in maintaining these programs, and the benefit of copylefting our changes would be less than the harm done by a fork in development. So it is better to work with the XFree86 group and not copyleft our changes on these programs.

It's an interesting phenomenon associated with free software: enough talented developers get the perception that the current people in control are being unreasonable about release schedules, overall direction, features, bugs, indenting styles, etc. and fork their own branch.

A closely-related parallel here is how the egcs folks wanted greater ability to change the gcc codebase than the gcc developers wanted to do.

Then, the egcs branch took off so famously that later it essentially became the gcc development branch.

May the best X branch become the tree trunk.

It's an interesting phenomenon associated with free software: enough talented developers get the perception that the current people in control are being unreasonable about release schedules, overall direction, features, bugs, indenting styles, etc. and fork their own branch.

A closely-related parallel here is how the egcs folks wanted greater ability to change the gcc codebase than the gcc developers wanted to do.

Then, the egcs branch took off so famously that later it essentially became the gcc development branch.

May the best X branch become the tree trunk.

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
* a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code,
...
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. (emphass added)

So, unless you plan to do maintainance on obfuscated code, this is no good for GPL software. In fact, it's no good for Open Source software of any kind.

Admitadly, you could use unobfuscated code and refuse to reveal the watermark, but it's kind of tricky to keep things secret in the OSS world.

I don't know either, but check here for news.

Anybody using it?

How can people say BSD is dying when it has a mascot like this?! Linux needs to get its act together if it's going to compete with the kind of hot chicks and gorgeous babes that BSD has to offer!

You just can't take Linux seriously when its fronted by losers like these. Would you buy software from them? I don't think so! You Linux groupies need to find some sexy girls like her! I mean just look at this girl! Doesn't she excite you? I know this little hottie puts me in need of a cold shower! This guy looks like he is about to cream his pants standing next to such a fox. As you can see, no man can resist this sexy little minx. I mean are you telling me you wouldn't like to get your hands on this ass?!

With sexy chicks like the lovely Ceren you could have people queuing up to buy open source products. Could you really refuse to buy a copy of BSD if she told you to? Come on, you must admit she is better than an overweight penguin or a gay looking goat! Don't you wish you could get one of these? Personally I know I would give my right arm to get this close to such a divine beauty!

Join the campaign for more cute open source babes today!

I thought we were meant to boycott Amazon because of their one-click purchasing patents? Click here for more details.

Shouldn't we print copies of The right to read
and give them out to each schoolmaster and teacher?

We can certainly present a formal complaint for school activities that indoctrinate instead of educate. A lawsuit is not the initial choice (we're not SCOX) but it may be necessary if there is no reaction to the complaint.

This sh1t the **AA is trying to pull is not a joke. It is extremely serious. How do you feel about your children? I know how I feel about mine and I'm ready. Act now and they'll have a future.

Shouldn't we print copies of The right to read
and give them out to each schoolmaster and teacher?

We can certainly present a formal complaint for school activities that indoctrinate instead of educate. A lawsuit is not the initial choice (we're not SCOX) but it may be necessary if there is no reaction to the complaint.

This sh1t the **AA is trying to pull is not a joke. It is extremely serious. How do you feel about your children? I know how I feel about mine and I'm ready. Act now and they'll have a future.

Shouldn't we print copies of The right to read
and give them out to each schoolmaster and teacher?

We can certainly present a formal complaint for school activities that indoctrinate instead of educate. A lawsuit is not the initial choice (we're not SCOX) but it may be necessary if there is no reaction to the complaint.

This sh1t the **AA is trying to pull is not a joke. It is extremely serious. How do you feel about your children? I know how I feel about mine and I'm ready. Act now and they'll have a future.

Shouldn't we print copies of The right to read
and give them out to each schoolmaster and teacher?

We can certainly present a formal complaint for school activities that indoctrinate instead of educate. A lawsuit is not the initial choice (we're not SCOX) but it may be necessary if there is no reaction to the complaint.

This sh1t the **AA is trying to pull is not a joke. It is extremely serious. How do you feel about your children? I know how I feel about mine and I'm ready. Act now and they'll have a future.

Lol, I'd be willing to bet if Sun went under there would be some major difficulties in the industry.

How much money are you willing to lose on that bet?

There are plenty of free or open source and third party sources for Java compilers, JVMs, bytecode compilers, class libraries and related apps.

Sun could disappear tomorrow and Java would continue.

Lol, I'd be willing to bet if Sun went under there would be some major difficulties in the industry.

How much money are you willing to lose on that bet?

There are plenty of free or open source and third party sources for Java compilers, JVMs, bytecode compilers, class libraries and related apps.

Sun could disappear tomorrow and Java would continue.

Meet gcj, smart guy.

#1 - serious question - how many serious accounting packages are being worked on in the open-source world? It's exactly the kind of software hackers usually denigrate...

In my analysis, it isn't that open-source developers don't want to work on this sort of thing, it's that there is a certain amount of infrastructure that needs to be in place before projects like this can proceed. Several enterprise-class accounting projects have been started, but few finish; it's because the tools aren't in place yet.

The FOSS community doesn't avoid doing corporate-type projects, as a lot of people claim. FOSS software is written because it is positioned properly to fullfill a need. Until very recently, FOSS was not accepted in the enterprise. Now, as more and more corporations are depending on various FOSS software, you will see many projects targetting medium-to-large corporations.

For instance, look at the relatively-new GNU Enterprise project. This is a major undertaking which has begun by creating the tools required to build an enterprise management infrastructure.

As FOSS software penetrates various markets, you will see many FOSS projects building finance/hr/materials-management/analysis tools. I predict that 2004 will be the year of the enterprise for FOSS (Linux,*BSD,GNU). You'll see prepackaged medical management software, ERP software, etc. By the end of 2005 I believe you will see a complete enterprise management system, from supply chain to finance to HR to payroll.

But maybe I'm just a pollyanna.

Customers: Shop wisely. You are voting with your dollars. If you accept draconian DRM, you will NEVER get your freedom back. You must protect your individual rights by choosing the best product and not buying based solely on emotionally exciting advertising hype or getting pushed around by impotent corporate shortcuts to profitability.

Corporations: Adapt to the changing environment as you have always done. Listen to the customers and do everything possible to keep these informed consumers on your side. Search for innovative ways to improve your product, streamline your processes, and still make a REASONABLE amount of money. Stay alive to serve the customers tomorrow.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the main gripes consumers have with big media products today:

Things Wrong with Movies: Overpriced movies to match the overpriced snacks, Ben Affleck and J-Lo, crappy plots (which also may fall under the Ben Affleck category), $20+ million dollar salaries for actors which leads to increased ticket prices, irritating and useless copy-protection on DVDs, etc.

Things Wrong with Music: Overpriced CDs, Britney Spears, not enough money given to the artists, Britney Spears, generic one-hit wonder boy bands pushed like a cheap drug, Britney Spears, general refusal to adapt to the internet (thank Apple for what innovation there is there), etc.

Things Wrong with Satellite: Well, nothing.... We're just stealing that because we can.

Your bringing Monsanto here is very relevant. By (ab)using patents and license agreements they are trying to legally justify sale revenues that they DO NOT have a right to. All their fallacious reasoning lies on the false idea that, somehow, they are entitled by law to these revenues.

They are not. Just because farmers planting the seeds reduces their income does not make it illegal. And thus the law should NOT make it illegal in any way. And this is applicable to the RIAA/MPAA as well as Stots Corporation : they should not be able to claim to be entitled to what they falsely consider "lost revenues". It is not lost, it is fair use.

You pay for a material object, you own it. That's what most average people still think when they buy a CD. In the case of these woodworking tools, a judge would simply laugh the issue out if the company tried to enforce its license. I could write on my door that you owe me five bucks whenever you come into my house, that does not mean I can extort the money out of visitors, even though it's MY door.

Besides, contrary to what Stots claims, most distributed software today comes with a license that explicitly permit redistribution and copying.

Oh, err, anyone tried to buy something with money wrapped in a "license agreement" that stipulates the money's still yours ? That would be a fit payment for Stots.

Isn't that ironic that the term "hacker" originally described someone who makes furniture with an axe? Don't you think?

What next? A boat not sold but licensed with the EULA explicitly prohibiting the very act of abordage? Well, that will stop piracy for sure. "Ahoy, Matey. By saying 'Argh!' ye agree to the terms of the following End User License Agreement..."

That RMS warned us about when he talked about GNU.
Look here and here.

But remember that we don't want to scare them!!

Ben Franklin was a good businessman and PR man. So he is the one known as the inventor, when in fact TJ probably invented at least as many items as Ben Franklin did. Since Ben Franklin was the shrewd businessman-type, and Thomas Jefferson was the always-losing-money-on-every-business-he-tried type (and his businesses were often based on the newest and latest technologies), you'd think Ben would be more likely to come up with patent, trademark, and copyright laws than TJ would.

TJ created the patent system that was the basis for the patent system in place today, even though he disliked the idea of patents in general. He felt that patents could cause there to be an unfair monopolies.

So he never patented any of his inventions.

Awww, you're upset because you'll lose that crisp new dollar that Amazon gives you for flogging their patent-supported wares?

To use your logic: why should people stop standing up for what they believe in? Get the fuck over it.

Is it something like this?

RTFM.

yeah, but the GPL doesn't permit companies to make any profit on GPL'd software

That is not true. You are allowed to sell GPL software at whatever price you want. It only says, that if you make a profit on selling binaries without source, you must also sell sources without making any profit on the sources. For the exact words read section 3 part 3 of the GNU GPL.

yeah, but the GPL doesn't permit companies to make any profit on GPL'd software

That is not true. You are allowed to sell GPL software at whatever price you want. It only says, that if you make a profit on selling binaries without source, you must also sell sources without making any profit on the sources. For the exact words read section 3 part 3 of the GNU GPL.