🚀 go-pugleaf

>[Ongoing discussion of copyleft vs. public-domain (PD).]

A copyleft requires (most :-) people who redistribute your program to
redistribute the source.  I believe (personally, IMHO) that this has
at least two important `academic' advantages over public-domain
software.

* There is a strong `sharing' incentive.  If I find a bug, I share it.
  If you find a bug, you share it.  Bugs get fixed.  With PD code, a
  `branch' that goes proprietary will stop propigating bug fixes back
  to the main tree.

* The copyleft is propigated with the code.  If the copyleft includes
  some kind of credit to the original authors, then the Great
  Inspiration (tm) of users along the way will get passed back to the
  creator.  Aside from the ``warm fuzzy'' feeling of hearing from
  people, you also get good ideas.

Finally, remember that GNU's copyleft has a very specific set of
goals.  If you wish, you can `copydown' your programs in a way that is
more or less restrictive, as you please.

	;-D on  ( Parameter passing by copy-in copy-left )  Pardo
-- 
		    pardo@cs.washington.edu
    {rutgers,cornell,ucsd,ubc-cs,tektronix}!uw-beaver!june!pardo