Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: OFFTOPIC: GTK and alternative GUIs and windowing systems in Linux | Date | Wed, 11 Feb 1998 14:57:09 -0800 | From | Craig Milo Rogers <> |
| |
>This is much worse then with a GPLed piece of software.. Say MS 'buys' >Linus Torvalds.. So WHAT? Alan Cox takes over maintaing the kernel.
Actually, it might be worse than that. A debacle has recently occured over in Perl-land. In summary:
1) Perl developer A released some Perl code under "the terms of Perl itself", ie, distribution under the GPL and/or Artistic License (AL).
2) This code did some very useful things. It was so useful that Perl developer B incorporated developer A's code into the core perl distribution, perhaps making some changes along the way.
3) Discussions ensued.
4) Developer A announced that it was his belief that the GPL was a revocable license: that is, that he, the copyright holder, had the right to revoke the GPL, and demand that no further copies be distributed under the terms of the GPL. He requested that all existing copies on public FTP archives would be deleted. Concurrently, developer A released a new version of his software, under a more restrictive, GPL-incompatible license.
Craig Milo Rogers
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
| |