From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 16:50:33 +0000 From: Damien Raphael Sullivan Message-ID: <8iteic$17v@gap.cco.caltech.edu> References: <200006171848.OAA23776@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] Redistribution Topicbox-Message-UUID: c7c274b2-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 >I must admit I find the fissiparous nature of the Open Source/FSF >community a little dispiriting. We're just trying to make stuff >available. Please accept it in the spirit in which it's offered. One could argue that making stuff available under fissiparous licenses doesn't help. People know what the GPL, LGPL, and BSD licenses mean, and that software under those licenses is free. They may argue over whether the GPL is too restrictive or BSD too lax, but they know where the software stands, and can work or not as they choose. When people see yet another license fresh from the corporate lawyers, they worry over what's contained in the legalese. Which people don't like reading and decoding. And they assume there must be some non-free component to the license, else why not use one of the existing licenses? It's about branding, really. Hmm. I wonder if one could have a license which was the GPL or BSD with a modification clause, such as "You may not use this code if you have sued Lucent over IP issues, notwithstanding any other clause of this license." -xx- Damien X-)