Still no new license -- but draft text available

[Rainer Deyke]

"John W. Stevens" <jstevens at basho.fc.hp.com> wrote in message
news:39931449.6C9C6AEA at basho.fc.hp.com...
> Gary Momarison wrote:
> > Comment on the previous post: The "obsession" that motivates copyleft
> > and which draws so many to the GPL is an obsessional desire for
> > FAIRNESS, which Stallman's propaganda UNFAIRLY exploits and which, like
> > his promotional misuse of the software freedom concept, is less well
> > achieved by the GPL than by old-Python, BSD, X11, and similar licenses.
>
> The whole point of the GPL is indeed fairness.  I don't see how BSD, or
> the X11 licenses, or the old-style Python license, achieve this end as
> well as the GPL/LGPL do.
>
> > A suprising number of people are captivated by the thought that someone
> > should only be allowed to use their work if that someone will
> > reciprocate.
>
> Umm . . . no.  The GPL/LGPL is based on a very simple concept: if you
> are of a cooperative mentality, use the L\GPL license, and use L\GPL
> code.  If you aren't a cooperative type, don't use 'em.

That is an oversimplification.

I write shareware games.  I distribute my games for free through the
internet, and charge for the password which unlocks the full game.  If I
distributed the source code for my games for free under the GPL, there would
be no incentive for anyone to register since anybody could just remove the
password check and release the result.  This is clearly not an option I'm
willing to take.  I guess you could dismiss me as uncooperative.

HOWEVER, I am not opposed to cooperation.  I have contributed in minor ways
to several open source projects.  I have posted some of my own source code
in answer to questions on usenet.  I have even considered cloning LGPL
project and releasing the result as open source with a more generous
license.


--
Rainer Deyke (root at rainerdeyke.com)
Shareware action/role-playing games      -      http://rainerdeyke.com
"In ihren Reihen zu stehen heisst unter Feinden zu kaempfen" - Abigor