Re: Alternatives to the Affero General Public License
On Wed, 2005-06-22 at 10:19 -0700, Gregor Richards wrote:
> In response to "Still unworkable. I want to use the code for some
> embedded use ..."
> How is this unworkable? To support the HTTP protocol to the degree of
> sending source code does not require a full HTTP sever per se. Hell,
> you could just receive input and ignore it until a blank line, then send
> Content-type: application/octet-stream
> <other headers>
>
> <data>
>
> and make a suitable "HTTP server" in about 25 lines of code. Any device
> with networking capability could support such a simplNobody said it
> needed to support sending any other files, etc.
I submit that there are embedded environments that will, despite your
helpful 25 "line" (assembly? C? Java?) HTTP server, not have the
capacity to include it.
But let's say that your 25-line HTTP server, with a few tweaks, can be
made to fit in absolutely every net-connected embedded device in
existence. Now where do you put the source archive the HTTP server is
supposed to serve?
You could, I suppose, mandate to the poor developer that he has to add
sufficient flash memory to the device to hold the source. But now we're
talking about using the law to mandate design decisions against the
developer's wishes. I don't know what definition of free gives you the
right to tell developers how much memory their devices must, by law,
have; none of them I have heard does so.
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