Re: [gentoo-dev] Winex-cvs being removed from portage?

[Chris Gianelloni <wolf31o2@gentoo.org>]

On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 08:26, Patrick Lauer wrote:
> Not allmighty. In some circumstances the GPL is not usable.
> But _if_ (theoretically) the wine project had used the GPL from the
> beginning no other project could have profited (in a monetary sense)
> from their work.
> But since they did not think that anybody would abuse the licensing
> freedom from their old license they did not use the GPL.

Codeweavers, who hosts the wine project, and also sells several modified
versions of wine, would also have been bound by their own licensing and
would be unable to do business.  This is exactly why I used the example
that I did.

> and the GPL is one method of keeping software free.

Who said anything about keeping software free?

> Yes, but as a "Free" Software Developer the BSD license is almost unacceptable
> since everybody and his dog can take your software.

...and you can use it in a commercial venture yourself without breaking
the terms of the license YOU CHOSE.  The only other solution is to
create your own license.

> You are stomping around on semantics. derived or patched, where do you draw 
> the line? From my point of view winex is an extensive patch to an older 
> version of wine.

So Mandrake is an extensive patch to an older version of Red Hat? 
Gentoo is simply an extensive patch to the Linux kernel?  You're
speaking as someone who has a biased opinion without bothering to follow
the development of these projects.  There are several projects that use
the wine sources.  Transgaming is not alone.

> And yes, they made a simple request, but to me it sounds like "Stop
> giving away the software we 'borrowed' from someone else"

Actually, if you bothered to look in their CVS, you would see how much
has been completely rewritten and how much completely new functionality
has been added.

> I really dislike the licensing terms of transgaming, and I suppose their
> CVS was made available to reduce the flak from Open Source Fanatics :-)

I seem to recall something about a pot and a kettle.  Fanaticism starts
at home.

> Yes. But I have a strong conviction that other people should be made
> aware of the surrounding issues.

Great!  Then get your facts straight with the *truth* and spread that. 
How about reading the mailing list archives where you will find that the
core wine developers were completely aware of what was going on and were
all for it.  The only "issues" abound are ones created by people looking
to make a name for themselves or to simply argue.

> Because it includes Microsoft? 

No, because Microsoft's shared source program is in no way free, nor
open.  Not to mention it immediately brings on strong feelings from
either side of the fence.  When picking an example to argue, it is best
not to pick one that brings about a slashbot mentality, especially if
you're trying to prove an objective point.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Developer, Gentoo Linux


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list