From: dwight AT wse DOT com Subject: Re: Cygnus Cygwin32 Press Release 1/21/97 14 Feb 1997 00:50:42 -0800 Approved: cygnus DOT gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Distribution: cygnus Message-ID: <9702131356.aa02363.cygnus.gnu-win32@newman.wse.com> References: <2 DOT 2 DOT 32 DOT 19970213160946 DOT 00923b00 AT ma DOT ultranet DOT com> Original-To: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19970213160946.00923b00@ma.ultranet.com> Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com I had initially sent this via private mail rather than to the mailing list, but since everyone's doing it here's my two cents worth: Hmmm, now that I think about this I think that I'm confused. If Cygwin32 is under the GPL, then I don't see how Cygnus can relieve end-users of the GPL requirement that they make the appropriate source available. If Cygwin32 is under the LGPL (which seems to be the appropiate choice IMHO), then no one would actually need a license to use it in a proprietary program anyway. Of course it might be worthwhile to pay Cygnus some fee to act an intermediary for those requesting the Cygwin32 source. I guess if Cygnus actually wrote the entire thing with nothing derived from GPL source that this would make sense. But if this is what is going on, then Cygnus should make an unambiguous statement to this effect. For better or worse Cygnus is so closely associated with the FSF, that people dont expect them to be holding a non-GPL version in their back pocket (a la Ghostscript). Note that if this is what is going on, that I'm not saying it is wrong. I'm just saying that Cygnus should make things absolutely crystal clear. Dwight Shih For the legally fussy: Permission is granted for any or all of this message to be quoted in any message to the gnuwin mailing list. Geoffrey Noer writes: > Greetings, > > Following is a copy of the recent Cygwin32 press release made on Jan 21, > 1997. Of particular note is the fact that Cygnus will be selling > commercial licenses for Cygwin32 in the first half of 1997. This means > that companies wishing to use the Cygwin32 library in proprietary programs > will be able to do so with a license from Cygnus. Cygnus will continue > to provide public releases under the GPL for those people using the library > in conjunction with the development of free software. > > I will send more detailed information to the lists as it becomes available. - For help on using this list, send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".