Re: unclear formulations in license_disc.wml
--On Tue, Oct 13, 1998 1:41 pm +0200 "Philipp Frauenfelder"
<pfrauenf@niederglatt.lugs.ch> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> in the course of tranlating intro/license_disc.wml to german I
> found some sentences which were not that clear to me. I know the
> document is still under development but perhaps it's only a
> misunderstanding of some sort. As there is no author's address
> (would be reasonable for a page under development) I write to
> the whole list.
>
> First one is in the good/bad part of GPL:
>
> "Anyone who releases software using the GPL does not consider
> these restrictions bad, because it prevents others from making
> money off of their hard work while allowing others to use it."
>
> I understand it like this: "Anyone who releases software using
> the GPL does not consider these restrictions bad, because it
> prevents others from making money off of their hard work while
> not sharing their work with the public."
>
Whilst the sentence you give is correct (more or less - the GPL doesn't
restrict distribution for profit, merely licensing for-profit - a subtle,
but important difference), I don't think that it is in fact the desired
meaning.
I think the desired meaning is that the GPL allows people to use the work,
but doesn't allow them to make money off it (again, this is not quite true).
> Second sentence is in the section "Some common mistakes in
> self-written licenses" in "Requiring that all changes to the
> software be reported to the author":
>
> "History has shown that as long as development on the original
> code doesn't stall branches only succeed if there are other
> forces driving the split."
>
> My understanding of this: "History has shown that stalled
> branches from development of the original source only succeed if
> there are other strong forces inside the project driving the
> split."
I suspect you would have understood the desired meaning, had there been a
few extra commas as follows:
"History has shown that, as long as development on the original
code doesn't stall, branches only succeed if there are other
forces driving the split."
I.e - If original development doesn't stall (stop), branches will not
succeed, unless other forces drive the split.
>
> Could please somebody make this clear. Either the formulations
> or that I need some more english lessons (which I do anyway) :-).
Not as much as I need German lessons...
Tschuss
Jules
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