Re: Encoding the name in the file contents (was Re: Towards a new LPPL draft)
> From: tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)
> Date: 24 Jul 2002 22:44:16 -0700
>
> See, we have a different model of evolution--one much much much longer
> term.
>
> Our model is one that should not rely on any assumption that
> *anything* will be static, because of a desire to think *long* term.
>
> Consider if every package did what you say. Then in a few centuries,
> all the names are taken. Do we want that?
>
\begin{rant}
I would like to remind you that our model is realy old. LPPL is
based on Knuth's ideas. TeX exists for about a quarter of century,
and its license is based on the traditions existing in scientific
community for several thousand years. We knew the value of
freedom at the times when RMS did not even think about GPL.
\end{rant}
Your question is similar to the question "If you want to store
everything in libraries, what are you going to do when the projected
library space exceeds than the combined volume of all Earth
buildings?" The answer is, the available space (namespace for packages
in our case) is more than we need for several hundred thousand years
(just try elementary combinatorics to check). This is more than the
total time of existence of our culture; we can safely assume that
human beings so much in the future would be vastly different from
us. I doubt that our copyright laws and licenses survive this
long. Also, with all my respect to Knuth, I doubt that TeX survives
this long.
--
Good luck
-Boris
When it's dark enough you can see the stars.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson,
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