[Sussex] GNU, things to come?

[The ol' tealeg]

On Mon, 25 Nov 2002 13:17:09 -0500
Steve Dobson <SDobson at manh.com> wrote:
> > Specifically you're right in terms of criminal law ... <snip>
> 
> I knew that was comming :-)

Am I so predictable ?

> I've hurd that comment from the BSD license camp - or are you saying that
> Kirk M, Eric A, ... are pals of WHG?  Their view is that the GPL puts on
> restrintions and is therefore not "free".  The BSD license doesn't prohibit
> you from changing the software and marketing it (for a price).  Discloser
> is not a requirement.

A very good point.  It's a question of whether you are a left-liberal or a true liberal  - a left-liberal would argue it is the role of legislation (or in this case the license) to ensure that freedoms are passed down the line (a la GPL) and true liberalist would argue that it was up to the individual.

My problem with the BSD license is this: I can be charged a large amount of money by a monopoly vendor for something that is available for free, but I cannot replace that part of the commercial product with the free version (and get the associated financial reward).  Moreover I do not have free rights over the portion of the product I am sold that was derived from free matrial.  Essentially my freedom has been compromised by someone else excersising theirs.  This is a Bad Thing TM, in my mind - but others feel it is OK.
  
> To quote from above "Here here!".  I agree, and as more people advance up
> the structure that have used and found the advantages of OSS will see 
> Linux, FreeBSD and the like grow.  The future might be better than the
> present.  But we must campain for it.

I agree.  One of the ways UNIX ended up in business in the first place was by Uni students who had used UNIX bringing that knowledge into the workplace.  It would be great if we could get LINUX into UK schools as well as the Universities (a lot of Uni's already run LINUX on computer science courses.. I used it an Uni back in 1997/1998).

-- 
GJT
geoff at tealeg.uklinux.net
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