[Asterisk-Users] SysMaster and GPL Violation

Joe Greco jgreco at ns.sol.net
Fri Nov 12 22:10:02 MST 2004


> I apologise.

No problem.  It's easy to get all worked up over licensing issues, depends
on your politics.  :-)

>From my side, I'm kinda sitting here in amazement, watching how a list that
was so GPL-advocate a few weeks ago during the last license debate turned
so "who-cares-about-the-GPL,-let's-back-Digium's-position".

Especially since we had a very interesting segue in that discussion that
led into a debate about RHEL, and how companies might try to circumvent the
intent of the GPL while abiding by the letter of the license.

I don't have anything at all against Digium, of course, and certainly we
all appreciate Mark's efforts.

However, I do feel that the intent of the GPL is important.  It's an
interesting idea, probably even a great idea if it was an ideal world,
where no one had to code for a living.  In this case, I do see the 
intent of the GPL being bent, and I believe that there are questions 
that should at /least/ be asked.  To hide it all away from the light of
day is unfair to new contributors.  To pull it out in the open and
examine it is a reasonable thing to do.  We don't need to end up liking
it, after all, but knowing what is going on is still important.

So, for that, I apologize as well, but I simultaneously submit that I
believe it in everyone's best interest to be aware of the variance from
typical free software practices, and to think about what that means.

> Can we establish a "GPL Viloation" list somewhere so this can be  
> continuted there?

Well, if nothing else, we can all certainly agree that the original subject
matter is a most heinous violation of the GPL.  :-)  

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.



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