Burnes, James wrote:
(1) Everytime the kernel invokes kmod, the kmod team brays about how great they are. (2) Everytime someone opens a dynamic library, it shouts about how great it is. (3) Everytime your email program starts up, it delays for 20 seconds while it advertises for the team. Of course if you buy support, this message goes away. Hmmm.... (4) Everytime a particular SMTP service starts up it announces it's version and a random contributor. For people trying to hack into systems, this is very bad as it can be used to determine whether there are vulnerabilities.
If the above software is Free, it does not contravene the license to modify the software so it doesn't do this (without specific examples, I can't be sure if the above software is free or not). One can only assume that the developers are either a) OK with this, or b) militantly unaware of the permissions they are granting when they release their software under a Free license.
I find it unlikely that people intelligent enough to write software as complex as Apache, Sendmail, Linux, Thunderbird, etc. would license their software under a license they haven't fully read, or don't fully understand. I (and, in my opinion, any 'reasonable person') must assume that when an author releases under the GPL, he intends to permit any modification of the program (including the removal of run-time advertisements), as the GPL states.
'GPL + rider' licenses, on the other hand, show that the author really intends some other license, which is often non-free.
GPL initially, followed by an amendment into 'GPL + rider' suggests that the author fits into category b).
-- Lewis Jardine IANAL IANADD