On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 11:35, Mike McCarty wrote: > > > >>My position on this matter is that if one writes something original, > >>then the moment he writes it, it is his sole property. > > > > > > But, you have to make an exception for a work that modifies > > something covered by the GPL. If you do such work you do not > > Les, read what I wrote carefully. I stated "something original". > Even under GPL, if I modify what is there, then my modifications > belong to me only. I think I understood you. I'm pointing out that the FSF disagrees and thinks they can control your original work if it might be used with theirs in certain ways - for example: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#NFUseGPLPlugins > > control it. You cannot even give it away without restrictions. > > I'd have to ponder this part a bit. If I write a little shell > script which, given someone else' copy of something GPL, will > modify it into something else, I don't see the problem. I don't have a handy reference, but I've seen RMS or the FSF quoted as saying you could not sell patches to GPL code, and you can't supply a library where the user does the link with GPL code to avoid the terms on the combined work. I don't think there is any legal precedent to support this, but I wouldn't want to pay the court costs to prove otherwise. > > According to the FSF you do not have the option to distribute > > it under any terms but the GPL. With any other license you can > > distribute your own work under your own terms and leave it up to > > the end user to obtain appropriate licenses for any other necessary > > components. > > The phrase "with any other license" is rather encompassing, isn't > it? But your point is taken. It is the stated purpose of Richard > Stallman to stamp out, eradicate, and eliminate proprietary software. The point of most other licenses is either to encourage users to buy their own copy in the proprietary case or to encourage users to use a copy in the free-but-non-GPL cases. The GPL is the only one with the intent to discourage use in circumstances not approved by RMS. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
