Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 16 Jul 1998 07:01:46 -0400 (EWT) | From | <> | Subject | Re: FreeGPL license proposal (was Re: Linus Speaks About KDE-Bashing) |
| |
On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, Kendall Bennett wrote:
> "Jon M. Taylor" <taylorj@ecs.csus.edu> wrote: > > > > >just FYI: you're collecting more and more points why I personally > > > >don't like GPL anymore and probably won't use it in the future for > > > >some sort of projects. > > > > I'm starting to feel the same way. The GPL now appears to have > > too much baggage and to be too poorly worded to continue using it. It is > > choking the practicality out of itself. > > I have to agree with this sentiment, and in fact our company looked > seriously at the GPL and LGPL for our SciTech MGL Graphics Library > when we made it free. I really wanted to use the LGPL because it was > well known, but after reviewing it extensively ourselves (and getting > our lawyers to review it) the ambiguities in the wording and the > requirements for developers using our libraries to distribute source > code was unacceptable (our library was previously commercial and has > many commercial game developers using it for games like WinQuake, > Half-Life, Mortal Kombat Trilogy etc).
the LGPL does not require that the source of the application using the LGPL'd library be distributed. i think the ambiguities will be fixed in GPL/LGPL v3.0. this should be coming soon, from what RMS has hinted. when it does, i suggest your lawyers take another look. it may be just want you want.
> We invented our own free license initially and this was not every > well accepted in the Open Source community (primarily because our > initial license kept us as the sole mainatiner of the source code). > We recently switched over to a modified version of the Mozilla Public > License (modified by changing the names to the SciTech MGL Public > License basically) which after review we found to be well worded and > acceptable. > > > So who's up for creating a "FreeGPL" license, extra-capitalistic > > rather than anti-capitalistic in spirit? > > Why not consider making the Mozilla Public License the basis for the > new FreeGPL license? The one thing about the Mozilla Public License > is that it has been extensively reviewed and hashed out by both > Netscapes laywers and developers in the Open Source Community to the > point of agreement. > > The one downside to the license is that it is legalese and can be > difficult to follow at times, however Netscapes 'Annotated Mozilla > Public License' makes it a lot easier to understand the issues is > covers. > > The one biggest plus is that this license is now well known, and I > think it is highly beneficial to the Open Source Community for as > much code as possible to fall under the same license. I think this is > a primary reason why the GPL/LPGL has been popular; people use it > because it is well known and accepted, not because they necessarily > understand all the legal ramifications of the license. In fact IMHO > if you interpret the GPL/LGPL's anti-commerical sentiments it would > appear to me that much of the commercial software appearing for Linux > does violate some of the GPL licensing (but this is argueable because > the damn license is so vague!). > > Regards,
by the way, i *really* like scitech's video software. you guys support everything, and do a very complete job. good work :). now if it was only GNU free.. <grin>
> +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ > | SciTech Software - Building Truly Plug'n'Play Software! | > +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ > | Kendall Bennett | Email: KendallB@scitechsoft.com | > | Director of Engineering | Phone: (530) 894 8400 | > | SciTech Software, Inc. | Fax : (530) 894 9069 | > | 505 Wall Street | ftp : ftp.scitechsoft.com | > | Chico, CA 95928, USA | www : http://www.scitechsoft.com | > +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu > Please read the FAQ at http://www.altern.org/andrebalsa/doc/lkml-faq.html >
_ _ __ __ _ _ _ | / |/ /_ __/ /_____ | Nuke Skyjumper | | / / // / '_/ -_) | "Master of the Farce" | |_ /_/|_/\_,_/_/\_\\__/ _|_ nuke@bayside.net _|
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.altern.org/andrebalsa/doc/lkml-faq.html
| |