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Software Freedom Law Center vs Theo de Raadt
An anonymous reader writes "In a recent public posting to the Linux Kernel mailing list the founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, Eben Moglen, lashed back at OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt without actually mentioning his name. 'What has happened is that people who do not have full possession of the facts and have no legal expertise — people whom from the very beginning we have been trying to help — have made irresponsible charges and threatened lawsuits, thus slowing down our efforts to help them.' Moglen pointed out that they have and continue to help all open source projects, including OpenBSD, but the process takes time. 'The required work has been made more arduous because some people have chosen not to cooperate in good faith. But we will complete the work as soon as we can, and we will follow the community's practice of complete publication, so everyone can see all the evidence.'"
BSD is DEAD!
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
How sad that the OpenBSD troll community are now reduced to trolling lkml for publicity. Spewing all kinds of nonsense about ethics that can only make sense if they admit to double standards for commercial relicensing and copyleft relicensing. At the center of all the FUD and mudslinging about unrelated issues, there is a minor copyright attribution issue that's being resolved. Can we please stop feeding the trolls.
Naturally I don't have to point out the irony of your signature line, or do I?
If you aren't a lawyer and haven't written any code then STFU. Seriously.
The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
It's funny how you indite yourself with your signature line. Asking someone to "STFU" is an act of censorship, Mr. Censor!!!
And I'm simply telling you that you are wrong and don't know what you are talking about.
What don't you get?
You're obviously used to bullshitting to people who don't know squat and now you're talking to someone who does and you can't understand why they're telling you to fuck off?
How we know is more important than what we know.
I'm more an observer in both cases; maybe it's that the Linux code into BSD was months ago and memory has faded. But it seems that the reaction of some in the BSD community is louder & longer. When I first heard of the Linux code being put into BSD, my thought was something to the extent of "Some people are making a very big fuss over a really minor mistake -- that was immediately corrected". And with the exception of a few GPL-Nazis, the issue was considered resolved.
I find it interesting that there appears to be more noise coming from the 'BSD code being used in Linux' - part of it is no doubt due to misinterpretation of the BSD license, and some pure reciprocity on the part of prominent OpenBSD coders. (And some equally bad behavior of the 'GPL-forever' crowd).
I find it odd that OpenBSD -- not Net, Free, or DragonFly BSD, seem to get the headlines for bad relations with Linux & GPL projects; especially as FreeBSD is the most popular of the bunch. I's almost as if some in the OpenBSD project want to prohibit their code from being used in GPL projects; a restriction not found in the BSD license.
Either way, just fix the problem and move on. Vitriolic grandstanding doesn't do anybody any good.
I do find it funny that some of the arguments are centered around minutae in copyright law in Germany. While the argument may hold weight in Germany, it doesn't hold any weight in the other countries any more than the USA's copyright laws have on the (Russian) allofmp3.com, or on the (Swedish) pirate bay.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
No link to whatever de Radt may have posted. Moglen should be direct, or STFU.
I don't have the time or patience for 'hint and innuendo' games.
Slashdot 'Editors' (better described as gatekeepers) have outdone themselves
on this one. I don't have a degree in journalism, but don't real editors:
a) work with authors (anyone even *heard* of this on Slashdot?) re: verbiage
b) fact-check (a truly laughable concept on Slashdot)
Slashdot has managed to maintain itself as something of a community voice.
Given the above, I think it's mostly a matter of history, momentum, and the
community not having come up with something rational to replace it.
But never mistake Slashdot for anything but a venue delivering eyeballs to
advertisers. Probably on the 'impression' business model, I might add, as I
doubt the 'click-through' model is working for them. Perhaps they can get a
premium impression rate because they have a large audience. I dunno.
But possible journalist metrics, which might include editorial competence and
integrity? Yeah, right. They're a pack of idiots. Don't get too caught up in
anything here. It's all about eyeballs and advertsiers, and posters are just
part of the product.
What you do with a computer does not constitute the whole of computing.