Re: KDE et al may not incorporate other people's GPL'd code
Hi,
>>"Paul" == Paul Seelig <pseelig@goofy.zdv.Uni-Mainz.de> writes:
Paul> ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk (Ian Jackson) writes:
>> If I find that anyone has taken some of my GPL'd code and put it
>> into a Qt-dependent program I _will_ insist that they do not
>> distribute the result until they have replaced my code or made
>> their program not depend on Qt.
>>
Paul> IMHO you are exaggerating. This attitude is contrary to the
Paul> spririt of free software. Free software means that anybody can
Paul> reuse your code for any project as long as the sources stay
Paul> available. This counts as well for the KDE project. I'd agree
Paul> if you'd complain if Trolltech put part of your code in their Qt
Paul> stuff which unfortunately is not allowed to be modified.
Just to pick a nit: When I distribute free software under the
GPL, then free software means what the GPL says (we are merely
playing word games here). And if people violate the GPL, they violate
the spirit of free software, and the wrath of the author is their
just dessert.
>> Morally, Qt-dependent programs are _not_ free[1], and if you take
>> GPL'd free code and put it into a Qt-dependent program you have
>> `stolen' it by making it no longer free, just as much as if you
>> took GPL'd software and incorporated it into a conventional
>> commercial program.
>>
>> Personally I WILL enforce my copyright in this respect, and I
>> encourage others to do the same.
>>
Paul> So i hope you'll do this as well for Motif based programs so
Paul> that you stay on the morally clean side. Come on, this is
Paul> ridiculous!
Of course it should be done with Motif as well. Why do you
think differently?
manoj
--
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console. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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