[TUHS] Lexical comparator, was Re: the battle against SCO

[norman@nose.cs.utoronto.ca (Norman Wilson)]

Robert Brockway:

  Hi.  Don't want to nitpick here but many of us think it is important to
  get this point straight whenever we are talking about GPLed code.  The
  kernel is licenced (as I'm sure you know).  What we are of course
  concerned about is:

  a) Code which is licenced in a manner incompatible with the GPL

  b) Code that the copyright holder did not authorise going into the kernel.

  I'm sure you were just speaking in shorthand but it is subtle point that
  many misinterpret.  Many people outside the OSS community think that "all
  that free code" is in the public domain, which it is most definately not.

====

Quite right.  I wasn't speaking in shorthand, I was speaking in
clumsy; what I should have written is `possible that code restricted
by the System V license got into the system.'

Licenses come in all flavours, and whether there is any license
at all is not the issue here.  I certainly didn't mean, for
example, to imply that all licenses are evil, reptilian kitten-
eaters from another planet.

Norman Wilson
Toronto ON