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Re: Debian and KDE: Appology



At 10:14 AM 9/8/00 -0400, Michael Alan Dorman wrote:
Paul Seelig <pseelig@mail.uni-mainz.de> writes:
> But RMS speaking like *this* is rather unappropriate and IMHO quite
> insulting.  I wonder if the author of ncftp who was hurting the GPL by
> using readline and who subsequently put ncftp under GPL as consequence
> of complaints was asked to beg for being forgiven as well?  I guess
> not, it was just retroactively considered legal, right?  Is this then
> just treatment of the KDE developers?  Definitely not!

The situation does differ somewhat: ncftp's violations were resolved
by actions taken by ncftp's author.  KDE's violations were resolved by
actions taken by Troll Tech, _not_ actions taken by KDE developers.

In addition, when it was pointed out to ncftp's author, he acknowledged the issue and resolved it. When it was pointed out to KDE, they denied that there was a problem (and -still- deny that there was a problem).

So whether you think the request for an apology is appropriate or not,
using the events surrounding ncftp as a basis for saying RMS is
applying a double standard is dubious, because the resolutions came
about through very different means.

And the actions of the FSF in both cases is identical: when the issue was resolved, the FSF dropped any potential legal claim against the violators they may have had. That action in both cases is consistent with the FSF's stated goals, and RMS's stated ethical position.


Mike.


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