Re: Question about the old BSD license and GPL (gtkipmsg)

[John Galt <galt@inconnu.isu.edu>]

On Sat, 23 Jun 2001, Raul Miller wrote:

>On Fri, Jun 22, 2001 at 04:00:57PM -0600, John Galt wrote:
>> >> ...thus it's giving credit where credit is due to the GNU foundation.
>
>On Sat, 23 Jun 2001, Raul Miller wrote:
>> >Sure.
>
>On Sat, Jun 23, 2001 at 03:43:51AM -0600, John Galt wrote:
>> Last exchange, you said it wasn't.  Message ID
>> <993242337.62931dd5@debian.org> as if I had to point it out.
>
>No.
>
>In that message, I was saying that the two cases were not
>equivalent.  And, I gave an illustration showing how the
>apache case would be different from the GNU case.

Of course it'd be different: the case never had any merit in the first
place: Apache uses a MODIFIED BSDL: clause 3 only applies to end-user
docs.  Now if we were to use the germane cases: parts of the X code and
SSL, we have a bit of a different story.  It gets harder to categorically
state that Debian doesn't depend much on X or SSL.  However, I submit that
copyright law has no provision for the amount of a copyrighted object
used once a certain threshold is met, and neither should Debian.  Others
than the GNU foundation have contributed code and aren't mentioned in
advertising: it's time to rectify this by adding some names to Debian's
advertising.  If it's doable for one, it had best be doable for all:
remember the typical Elementary Teacher's remarks when a pupil brought
food or drink in to the classroom--"I hope you brought enough for the
whole class".  Is credit that dear that there isn't enough to go around?
Perhaps instead of worrying about the undue burden of having to advertise
others' contribution, people should be asking why it took so damn long to
do what was right in the first place.  Regardless of how this particular
issue turns out, I feel that it is utterly wrong to fail to acknowledge
the contibutions of as many of the upstream authors as humanly possible at
every opportunity.  Do as you will, but can you seriously expect to
maintain Debian's characteristic moral superiority (some would call it
smugness) with hands this unclean?





>

-- 
 Customer:  "I'm running Windows '98"      Tech: "Yes."      Customer:
   "My computer isn't working now."     Tech: "Yes, you said that."

Who is John Galt?  galt@inconnu.isu.edu, that's who!