🚀 go-pugleaf

floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) writes:
> In article <a54ueB50w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (Lieutenant 030) 
> >Why, then, if I write a program including some GNU code, does the FSF
> >tell me what I'm allowed to do with *my* code, not just with *its* code?
> >Fine, the FSF can choose how its software is distributed.  I want to choose
> >how mine is distributed.
> 
> How you distribute your code is not being restricted.

False.  See below.

> You plainly state that included in the program is "GNU code",
> which is restricted to certain types of distribution.  If you
> don't want to distribute your program in a manner acceptable to
> the FSF, don't include "GNU code" in the distribution.
[...]
> Why do you insist that you can choose not only how your code is
> distributed, but also how code from the FSF is distributed?

I don't.  I'll go through it slowly one more time for the hard of thinking.

I have a program.  The code of the program is made up of a number
of procedures and functions.  Most of these procedures and functions are
written entirely by me.  A few of the procedures and functions were written
entirely by the FSF.

Now, I agree entirely that the code written by the FSF should be distributed
under the GPL.  If the FSF wrote function foo(), they should be allowed
to choose how the code for function foo() gets distributed.

The question is:  why should my function bar(), written only by me, have
to be distributed under the GPL just because it calls function foo()?
Why can't I just say "the functions in this .c file are under the GPL;
the functions in this .c file aren't"?

Why do the FSF tell me how I can distribute my code?  Why can't they just
tell me how to distribute their code?  After all, I'm not trying to tell
them how they can distribute their code, am I?  So why are they doing that
to me?


mathew

-- 
"Tolkien's writing appeals also to those with the mental age of a child --
 computer programmers, hippies and most Americans"
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