Re: [OT] - Interesting politics and the GPL
"Rob" == Rob Weir <rweir@softhome.net> writes:
Rob> On Wed, Oct 23, 2002 at 08:34:38PM -0700, Craig Dickson
>> Well, remember that corporations are taxpayers too.
Rob> Well, some of them. But corporations have no inherent right
Rob> to existence; real people, through their Governments, allowed
Rob> corporations to be set up as a kind of trade:
Uh? Real people, via investments in mutual funds, stocks and various
other financial instruments own corporations. Some "real people" are
better invested than others, but that is what a free society is all
about.
Rob> What they actually want is for the code to be sold to them at
Rob> fire sale prices under a license that lets them do whatever
Rob> they want with it, without contributing back to the community
Rob> that payed for it.
I love the GPL to pieces, and I am actually surprised I'm saying this,
but I honestly believe the US Federal government should not
exclusively push the use the GPL for federally funded research. IMHO,
the GPL should not be used at all! The GPL is a restrictive license
that pushes a very narrow political view (albeit one I support). Heck,
if they push the GPL for tax payer supported research I can't really
see how that is different from state supported religon. It might even
be my religon, but that would hardly make it right.
A BSD style license is much more "free" in terms of a large, diverse
tax payer base. (yeah, and I think emacs is better than vi too ;-)
Cheers!
Shyamal
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