Re: Alternatives to the Affero General Public License
On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 16:04:27 -0500, "Jeff Licquia" <jeff@licquia.org>
said:
> 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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So let me ask this (I also put this somewhere else, but it's lost to the
thread now ;) )
If the alternatives provided by clause 3 of the GNU GPL were also
options, would that be an improvement? That is, if, instead of
providing source within the page itself, an offer to provide source was
given, would that work?
I suppose the issue here is that you certainly couldn't give a physical,
printed, written offer to every one who used a web server, but then, it
may be reasonable to put "source is available on request to ..." in the
output.
There's another problem posed by that, though ... if somebody modified
the version, and forgot to change that line ... disaster.
- Gregor Richards
--
Gregor Richards
grichards@ml1.net
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