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Fink Maintainer Steps Down Due To GPL Infringment

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the dirty-rotten-mac-os-x-users dept.

DShadow noted that the Fink maintainer Christoph Pfisterer has resigned largely because of GPL violations by openosx and macgimp, as well as macosx.forked.net. There's definitely some tension between the mac world and the Open Source and GPL worlds. Certain amounts of culture clash are inevitable, but hopefully great projects like this will continue, and commercial vendors will be able to play nice without alienating developers. The good news for Macheads is that fink will continue just fine.

3 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. The GPL doesn't have an advertising clause by bhurt · · Score: 5, Informative

    It would be perfectly legal for me to grab a copy of the Linux source code, rip out all the credits as to who did what work, and release my new OS "Brianux". This would be reprehensible (and for the record, I have no intention of actually doing this, so save your flames)- but perfectly legal so long as I released the source.

    1. Re:The GPL doesn't have an advertising clause by ryants · · Score: 5, Informative
      Well, there's no advertising clause, but there is this:
      2 a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change
      So you would be obligated to state in each of those files that you changed them, and when, which should make it easy for people to see what you did (and did not do).
      --

      Ryan T. Sammartino
      "Ancora imparo"

  2. Title is false; make up your own minds by rsfinn · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is no evidence of any real GPL infringement here. I urge SlashDot readers, especially the kneejerk "GPL good, Apple bad" crowd, to read the conversations at the indicated links and make up their own minds:

    1) OpenOSX appears to be distributing source code on their CDs, and now gives credit to fink on the MacGIMP CD web page.

    2) Macosx.forked.net has also posted credit to fink on the home page web site, as well as indicating their intention to address GPL issues.

    Apparently Pfisterer is irritated in part because they were slow to give fink credit; but as others have pointed out, that's not a GPL violation.

    Following the other links he includes in his "resignation letter" suggests that he's quick to get irritated -- especially when people point this out to him (cf. the "abiword" thread). Perhaps there are other things going on in his life, and this isn't a good time for him to lead an open-source project. Fine. Kudos to him for leaving his ball behind instead of taking it with him.

    But the article title ("Fink Maintainer Steps Down Due To GPL Infringment") is misleading at best. Even Pfisterer didn't make this claim.