Re: GPL V3 and Linux

["linux-os \(Dick Johnson\)" <linux-os@analogic.com>]

On Sat, 21 Jan 2006, Horst von Brand wrote:

> Alexander Shishckin <alexander.shishckin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
>> Ain't that obvoius? Every second word that you read in GPLs is either
>> 'freedom' or 'share' and the rest of the document has absolutely nothing
>> to do with both, just restricting our *freedom* to *share*.
>
> How so? The existence of GNU doesn't restrict *my* right to share as *I*
> wish. If I, freely, place my stuff under GPL it /does/ restrict other
> people in just "sharing" (i.e., taking without giving in return). And that
> is fine with me. Not with them, I presume...
> --
> Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
> Departamento de Informatica                     Fono: +56 32 654431
> Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria              +56 32 654239
> Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile                Fax:  +56 32 797513

The problem is that every rule and every law takes
away rights. Laws do not give rights. Rules do not
give rights. Amendments to existing laws sometimes
prevent the restriction of rights (like the first 10
amendments of the US Constitution), however there
are no rules or laws that ever, anywhere, provided
any rights whatsoever. Rules, regulations, and laws
are all about restricting rights.

Sometimes the restrictions are necessary. For instance,
except in very special circumstances, governments usually
take away the inherent rights to kill, etc.

The initial writer was correct. The GPL was supposed
to be all about freedom. Then, there are hundreds of
words that have nothing to do with freedom. They
establish rules. The crybaby says; "You will play
by my rules or..." Rules restrict freedom.

Perhaps these rules are necessary. However, for 20
years before the Internet even existed, people were
sharing source-code without rules. This was the
principle behind the PROGRAM EXCHANGE and other
obsolete BBS systems. At that time the ground-
work of most all the file-compression routines,
file-transmission routines, file-types, flight-
simulators, etc., the stuff now claimed by others,
was freely given away. Some expected their names
to remain in the source, but eventually their
names were changed to "Microsoft" or GPL. For
example, Phil Katz. He invented "zip" and gunzip
and all that stuff. He's now dead. His lifetime
of work has been stolen by others and claimed
as their own.

The Internet gets established and somebody who's
claim-to-fame was the development of the world's
most complicated word-processor, establishes some
legalese and a lot of well intentioned persons
fall into his trap as he claims that he developed
GNU/Linux as well. Wake up.


Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.13.4 on an i686 machine (5589.54 BogoMips).
Warning : 98.36% of all statistics are fiction.
.

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