🚀 go-pugleaf

burley@geech.ai.mit.edu (Craig Burley) writes:
>In article <1686@tharr.UUCP> gtoal@tharr.UUCP (Graham Toal) writes:
>   I think a real free market economy is going to mean that people will start
>   producing software which is *truly* free, in rival to the Gnu project.
>   [...] the Bsd4.3 people went out of their way to avoid Gnu code when
>   shaking off the last AT&T shackles recently)

>If BSD4.3 people went out of their way to avoid GNU code
>for reasons having to do with "freedom", then I suspect it was because
>they ultimately want people to incorporate their code in proprietary
>products (i.e. *not*-free BSD4.3), whether that was a direct motivation
>or, perhaps, a motivation in making their ground rules be to release it in
>the public domain.

Not necessarily. They may believe (as I do) that it's morally right
to not assert control over anyone else's code. Code that I write I
wish to maintain control over. Among other things, this means that
I want to be able to sell it, shred it, release it into the public
domain, copyleft it, or do any number of other things to it. What
I choose to do (when it's my code and not a patch to something else;
in those cases I follow the original copyright (or, in the more
common case, copyleft)) is to make my code usable by anyone but
freely distributable. This means that I assert control over only my
own code; someone who takes my code and attaches it to a larger
work is welcome to control the distribution of _their_ work in any
way they choose; they just can't take away the freedom of my code.

I believe that this is the "right thing to do". It's a moral
judgement, not a legal one; legally, I think the FSF has the right
to use their code as a virus, infecting any code it comes into
contact with. But I believe such activity is morally wrong, even if
done with the best of intentions. Clearly, I'm not too adamant
about this --- I do a fair bit of porting and pounding on FSF code
and I'm happy to copyleft my changes and release them to the world.
But I won't release any code that I originate under the FSF copyleft;
I think it's the wrong way to bring about freedom for software.
The Berkeley people may well feel the same way.

--John

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
John L. Coolidge     Internet:coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP:uiucdcs!coolidge
Of course I don't speak for the U of I (or anyone else except myself)
Copyright 1991 John L. Coolidge. Copying allowed if (and only if) attributed.
You may redistribute this article if and only if your recipients may as well.