Re: JFORK: Or a reasonable response to the Sun SCSL
I have been watching this thread for some time and feel that some
reality is in order for anyone interested in this subject.
My 2 cents worth:
1. Sun and all other commercial ventures exist solely for the purpose of
making money. They will sometimes do some things that seem to be for the
"good of mankind", but those things generally have some "lucrative"
aspect to them (read SCSL).
2. The aspect of making money is not "a bad thing" in itself. The
acquisition of profit by using deceptive tactics is "a bad thing".
3. The owner of any original patent/copyright license has the right to
alter that patent at will. For instance if Sun decides to not make
StarOffice available under the SCSL they do have the right, because they
bought it, to make StarOffice a commercial package. They can do so at
will.
4. Technically/legally Sun or Microsoft, or AOL and many others, could
alter the terms of the current license structures so that "open source"
"free" software ceases to exist. If Linas Torvalds decided that the next
kernel version of Linux was not to be GPL software, he has the right to
do it. Does that shock you? If it does then you need to read up on the
U.S. patent and trademark guidelines as they apply to intellectual
property, especially software.
5. There is a huge movement in Europe to keep software patents out of
the legal system. I do not think they will be successful. However,
"THE ACTIONS TAKEN BY ALL INTERESTED PEOPLE WITH REGARD TO SUN'S SCSL
AND THE APPLICATION OF IT'S GUIDELINES WILL SET A PRECEDENT FOR YEARS TO
COME"
6. In my opinion "the best interests of free open source software will
be served by pushing forward with development of the GNU HURD system and
the implementation of a HURD Virtual Machine language that has all the
capabilities of Java as it is now, but is more likely to remain free.
7. If Debian and all the other Linux communities continue to put forth
free software that is portable to all hardware systems they represent a
serious threat to all commercial software.
8. A HURD VM is possible due to the nature of its message passing system
and would be the most reasonable course to pursue for the development of
portable software. This course would basically make Java obsolete, and
would allow the use of many types of inexpensive hardware solutions to
replace Sun's expensive servers and workstations. This is what they are
concerned about.
All my best wishes to the people who assist in the "Free Software"
movement, and especially to those of you that do the actual development
of applications.
--
John Foster
AdVance-Computing Systems
jfoster@augustmail.com
ICQ# 19460173
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