[Sami Aintila] Using GPL is an ideological choice. Nothing wrong with that. But there are lots of people who really don't understand the ideology they are subscribing to. Until it's too late. It's like a cult: once you're in, you can never get out. OK, I'm not a big fan of GPL, but that's not the point. The point is (as Jim was trying to explain in his first post) that GPL may be the single most important reason why some people cannot contribute to this project. I think this is a serious problem. But this problem could be circumvented by following the guidelines Jim suggested.
[Eric W] Contrarily, I believe it is the GPL which has ENABLED many people to contribute to this project without endangering the rights of the copyright holders. I assure you that had this project not been GPL, the DSP would still be in a very infantile form. I understand and respect your opinion of the GPL, but I believe choosing to use the GPL is one of the single best decisions our company has made. [Sami Aintila] But I know this is not the first time we're having this discussion. The concept of "plugins" has been mentioned (and rejected) many times before. But the concept seems to work just fine in many other applications. Why not here? [Eric W] I am still not completely clear on all of the legal implications of using plugins with a GPL project. There are clearly many sides to this argument with strong opinions as noted in previous messages. I don't have enough solid sources to make a statement one way or the other on this subject, except to say that the GPL license is VERY open. It would seem to me that a conflicting license would have to be closed more so than the GPL for this to ever be a problem. Jim's example does bring cause for more thought, however. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sami Aintila Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 4:27 PM To: FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] A plea to SDR software developers Some comments: [Jim Lux] > Warning... strong off-the-cuff opinions follow that I'll probably regret. Nothing to regret, Jim. These things needed to be said. [Frank Brickle] > Further discussion >/dev/null. Well, this is certainly a helpful attitude. [Eric] > We are committed to using the GPL as it gives us protection while at the same time offering an extreme amount of freedom in terms of modification and redistribution. Using GPL is an ideological choice. Nothing wrong with that. But there are lots of people who really don't understand the ideology they are subscribing to. Until it's too late. It's like a cult: once you're in, you can never get out. OK, I'm not a big fan of GPL, but that's not the point. The point is (as Jim was trying to explain in his first post) that GPL may be the single most important reason why some people cannot contribute to this project. I think this is a serious problem. But this problem could be circumvented by following the guidelines Jim suggested. But I know this is not the first time we're having this discussion. The concept of "plugins" has been mentioned (and rejected) many times before. But the concept seems to work just fine in many other applications. Why not here? 73, Sami OH2BFO _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
