On Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 09:18:10AM -0800, William Coulter wrote:
> I read this today and it was very informative about the inter-workings of the Novell-MS deal. I
> did not know that this kind of decption was going on. WOW.
>
> Novell-Microsoft pact not about interoperability, says Open Source leader
> http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Daily-News/c11627ed-d99b-49d2-983d-d22856181888.html
Wow. Well, that's enlightening -- and disturbing.
I'm a little annoyed at the FSF/GPL propaganda Allison shoveled in that
interview, though. The whole "GPLv3 doesn't ban x, it just prevents you
from using GPL code in something that does x" line of crap is getting
pretty old. Every time I turn around, someone's saying that.
If you're going to prevent people from doing x when your license is
involved, just admit it. Stop being such an equivocating bunch of
pansies about it, trying to have your cake and eat it too. The FSF is
trying to eliminate DRM, and the GPL is a tool toward that end. To
claim otherwise is to treat users of GPLed software the same way users
of MS EULA software are treated -- like mushrooms (kept in the dark and
fed crap). It's dishonest.
Frankly, I approve of the effort to eliminate DRM. I also disapprove of
the FSF's methods. DRM is long-term harmful not only to the customer,
but also to the vendor, and to the market as a whole. Education in the
realities of that would prove far more effective toward that end than
using the GPL to try to enforce GPL-less software. All the provisions
of GPLv3 will do is cause more corporations to decide that the GPL is
for communistic zealots, and license their stuff by other means. If
they choose something more sane like the BSD license, more power to 'em,
but I think the GPLv3 as currently written is more likely to drive
corporations considering joining the FLOSS world back into the arms of
their comfortable closed source, proprietary business models.
. . . especially when their lawyers tell them prominent FLOSS advocates
like Jeremy Allison are lying.
-- CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] "There comes a time in the history of any project when it becomes necessary to shoot the engineers and begin production." - MacUser, November 1990
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