Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Reply-To: Cygwin List Message-Id: <6.1.0.6.0.20040507223728.032780e8@127.0.0.1> X-Sender: Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 22:52:11 -0400 To: "Patrick J. LoPresti" , cygwin AT cygwin DOT com From: Larry Hall Subject: Re: GPL violation ? In-Reply-To: References: <20040505182418 DOT R31761 AT unsane DOT co DOT uk> <20040505185724 DOT C31875 AT unsane DOT co DOT uk> <20040506155542 DOT GC27589 AT coe DOT bosbc DOT com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 05:53 PM 5/7/2004, you wrote: >Christopher Faylor writes: > >> As I am sure you know, mentioning the GPL always starts a Rube >> Goldberg reaction of interpretation from would-be lawyers, zealots, >> or people who are unsatisfied with following the rules and assume >> they should have more rights to the software than the owners of the >> software intend to provide. > >Good point. If only everybody had the same charming personality as >you, we would not have such problems. What a shame! Maybe someday... > >Personally, I always follow the rules. I just think it is idiotic to >enforce them on some poor academic distributing unmodified binaries >whose source is widely available. > >On the other hand, if some corporation is making money distributing >GPL'd code without source, they should clearly be nailed to the wall. >Here's wishing the best to Red Hat's lawyers. Then your gripe is with the GPL. The point is, whether you agree with all the tenants of the license or not, you cannot selectively apply it based on your own interpretation or preferences. Doing so renders the license unenforceable for every situation, because the license doesn't discriminate. That's why people on this list make the efforts they do to make sure everyone complies. We choose to honor the license as it was written since that's the only way the license is valid. Some might find the realities of this to be "mean" but that's not the intent really, FWIW. -- Larry Hall http://www.rfk.com RFK Partners, Inc. (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office 838 Washington Street (508) 893-9889 - FAX Holliston, MA 01746 -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/