🚀 go-pugleaf

mathew@mantis.co.uk (nameless bandwidth consumer) writes:

> The GNU project started because people were fed up with having
> restrictions placed on what they could do with the code they had.  So
> now they release code which STILL has restrictions on what you can do
> with it -- just DIFFERENT restrictions.

Let's look at just how restrictive this GPL stuff is that we should concern
ourselves with it.

May I obtain GPLed software and support from any source I so choose?
	Yes.
May I use the code inside my organization in any way I like?
	Yes.
May I sell the software for what I choose?
	Yes.
May I build any sort of exploratory software I like using GPL code?
	Yes.
May I give away the code to strangers?
	Yes.
May I say I wrote it when I really didn't because I like to do that?
	No.
May I derive neat code from it and never give the result to anyone?
	Yes.
May I make up the terms under which people who get the code from me must
live?
	No.
You mean I can't stop other people from doing exactly what I can do?
	Yes.

How unfair.  How restrictive.  How useless this must be to people.
It's like another Berlin wall.  I feel trapped.  I almost can't breathe.
How can they call this free software?  Free?  You want free, I'll give
you free.  How about ideas?  Those are free.  You can sell them to
anybody and then tell them they can't use them except in the prescribed
manner and definitely can't tell them to anyone else.  Ah, the truly
free.  Truly free software for the meaning impaired.  I like it.  Just
to prove it, I think I'll write a line of code a day, in between the
messages that I have to get out to help people understand my vocabulary,
and I'll mark them all:  Truly Free Software - Feel free to restrict
distribution of this code any way you like.  I'll wait six months so
that I have a good body of work and then post all 180 lines to the net
so that thousands of commercial software vendors who are waiting for
this kind of thing can snatch it up.  This will make their jobs much
easier, so they will send offerings to the Truly Free Software
Corporation, allowing us more free time to post messages.  There, I can
breathe again.  It feels so good to become an activist.
And the world can be at peace with itself once more.



--
Bob Weiner				   rsw@cs.brown.edu
"We came here with nothing but our dreams and investment capital."
					      -- Maurice Minnefield