Re: Too Good to be True?

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Article #72763

#72763

From: Milt Epstein
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1992 21:44

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In <0cHceB10w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (en font terrible) writes:

>nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) writes:
>> In article <iRNaeB6w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (en font terrible)
>>    I don't use GNU products unless there is no alternative.  However, I feel
>>    obliged to point out that if people who spend their time writing GNU
>>    software were to spend their time writing free software instead, everyone
>>    could benefit.
>> 
>> The only people who don't benefit right now are the people who don't want
>> to share their software.
>
>False.  Those who want their software to be completely free are also unable
>to benefit.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "completely free", and explain
why these people do not benefit from the GNU license?

You seem to be meaning "completely free" in a sense that includes
those who would want to control access to the code they write that
includes code contributed by others.  That makes the software less
"free", since once it is used by those, it will no longer be free.
Hence, it seems like it is exactly those who want their software to be
completely free that benefit.

-- 
Milt Epstein
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois
epstein@cs.uiuc.edu

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References: <NELSON.92Jan9233040@cheetah.clarkson.edu> <0cHceB10w164w@mantis.co.uk>

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From: epstein@sunc2.cs.uiuc.edu (Milt Epstein)
Subject: Re: Too Good to be True?
Message-ID: <1992Jan10.214425.17129@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu>
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Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1992 21:44:25 GMT

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