Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com; run by ezmlm Sender: cygwin-owner AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com From: Chris Faylor Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 21:18:36 -0500 To: cygwin AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com Subject: Cygwin licensing: Six pragmatic points Message-ID: <19990317211836.A2302@cygnus.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95.3i Since no one seems inclined to stop discussing this, I feel obligated to make a few pragmatic points: 1) I do not believe that the LGPL is a feasible replacement for the GPL for Cygwin. Even if I did, I sincerely doubt that I could convince an Executive VP that it would be a good idea to use this license agreement. 2) It is unlikely that any arguments put forth here will be likely to change the Cygwin licensing terms from the GPL to anything else. The pragmatic reason: Changing the licensing means getting a lawyer involved. That means that we would have to spend money to change things. Ain't gonna happen. 3) We do not ignore potential violations of our license terms. We may be unaware of violations but we do not ignore them. 4) We are willing to handle licensing considerations on a case-by-case basis but it is unlikely that we will be making things generically easier for people who want to distribute binaries without sources. 5) When/if the GPL version 3 is released it may have terms that are more amenable to net releases, allowing people to provide links to software sources. If so, we will probably adopt this. 6) If a free software distributor needs clarification on what directories are required to build a complete cygwin distribution I will be happy to supply him with that information. Here's a hint, though: We provide just such a package in the snapshots directory, now. -- cgf AT cygnus DOT com http://www.cygnus.com/ -- Want to unsubscribe from this list? Send a message to cygwin-unsubscribe AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com