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SubjectRe: APC, Your company is making a mistake!
On 20 Oct 1998, Henning P. Schmiedehausen wrote:
> The suspended support and the removal of all binaries is brought to
> you by an unhappy GPL waving, source demanding, end-user........ Since
> this person has pushed the issue of the GPL status of the source to
> the limit
[...]
> Mike, you're a real hero to all of us. Instead of having just binary
> only support we now have no support at all. Thank you very much.

Actually, I am grateful to him. If there's some reason that the software
can't be offered as GPL, the end user shouldn't be mislead into thinking
it is.

GPL is very specific, you can't have it and then say, "But make an
exception for this case, because it inconveniences me". Sorry. If you
really want a GPL'd APC driver, there's apcd out there somewhere...

Frankly, this hasn't stopped anything; the sources for 2.8.x are floating
around out there now, and unless APC actually takes legal action against
the author, they're perfectly legal for use according to the GPL. The
"binaries are there because they let me do it" only lasts until they stop
letting him do it.

> >Mike A. Harris - Computer Consultant - Linux advocate
>
> "narrow minded idiot without a clue" would be better fitting.

Obviously for Mike (and myself), it's a matter of trying to ensure that
the GPL is properly abided by. There were only two ways that that the GPL
licensing issue could have been resolved in this case:

a) re-release the sources, or

b) remove the binaries.

I'd have preferred a), but b) works as well, especially since there are
still versions of the apcupsd GPL'd sources out there (see above about APC
winning a ruling against the author, though; if that happens, you'll have
to cease use of the software...which would probably be the case for the
binary-only version too, so maybe it's better this way all around).

More to the point, however, I don't think anyone was trying to be a "hero
to the people here; those arguing this point were arguing a case for GPL
enforcement, not for getting more software into everyone's hands. If you
failed to see what he was really arguing for, and that his agenda was
different than yours, perhaps you're more in need of a clue than he?

(Ghods, I can hear the Qt discussion getting ready to erupt from this
already...)

--
Edward S. Marshall <emarshal@logic.net> http://www.logic.net/~emarshal/ -o)
------------------------------------------------------ ----- ---- --- -- - /\\
Who'd have thought that we'd be freed from the Gates of hell by a penguin? _\_v

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