🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Dec16.104300.12930@pegasus.com> richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) writes:

   In reply to this Peter said the following:

   	The copyright that comes with Ghostscript is quite serious:
   	Ghostscript is, in my view, a piece of potentially commercial
   	software that I have developed, that I own, and that I choose
   	to distibute as GNUware.

   Frankly, for me that took a few days to fully sink in.  Peter has
   written Ghostscript and will allow us to use it and debug it for him.
   He reserves the right to turn it into a commercial product once we've
   helped him get it to that point.

   Then what do we have?  A package of what used to be GNUware that we
   are no longer allowed to modify or perhaps even use?

No.  Once a package is released as GNUware, no one can stop anyone
from copying it so long as they abide by the GPL.  This is true even if
the copyright holder releases a copy of it which is NOT under the GPL.

In other words, if you don't like the job Peter is doing, you're free to
distribute the "Richard Foulk" version of GhostScript, into which you
incorporate anyone's patches you feel like (assuming they give you permission).

If you think you can do a better job than Peter at improving GhostScript, the
GPL gives you a chance to do it.

--
--russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu])  FAX 315-268-7600
It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear -- Freeman Dyson
I joined the League for Programming Freedom, and I hope you'll join too.