"Copyright law is complex, OpenBSD policy is simple - OpenBSD strives to maintain the spirit of the original Berkeley Unix copyrights."
This is the first sentence of this page: http://www.openbsd.org/policy.html Can't people see how ridiculous is all that talk about "why don't we change the license"? It's written clearly: "strives", which means that being free as Berkeley Unix was is damn important to the project. Besides, let's say that all of a sudden OpenSSH's license changes as has been suggested by many. Any company and/or project could think "Well, the new version has XXX license but the previous version is BSD! So, let's just get the old code and fork it." Read the OpenSSH history here: http://openssh.org/history.html Whoo, these first sentences are really great: "OpenSSH is a derivative of the original free ssh 1.2.12 release from Tatu Ylvnen." Tatu changed the license and created... SSH.com! How ironic... why wouldn't someone think to do just the same if OpenSSH's license changed? Cut these threads, please, and let the devs code. On 3/24/06, Brian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- "Spruell, Darren-Perot" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Better approach. How about said companies belly up and support the group > > that enables them (in part) to enjoy the financial success they have? > > Because there is no reason for them to. Here's what would happen: > > 1) license change comes out > 2) IT looks for alternative program > 3) IT provides figures to finance for either the alternative program, > the new license, or in house development > 4) finance runs some cash flow analysis and sits down with the CIO and CFO > based > on the results > 5) suggestion is provided to management > > I work in finance. There is no reason to provide funding from a business > standpoint. What does the business gain? Corporations basically have a > free > development team. Sure they cannot dictate requests, but the code quality > is > high and the product works well. > > Honestly, unless the openSSH team mandates funding, no one will cough up > cash. > And the license price has to be the sweet spot, where it isn't too high > that no > funding is received and not too low that it doesn't accomplish anything. > > And Theo from his messages doesn't want the direction of the program > dictated > to him by folks that donate. No corporation is gonna provide funding > unless > they get something out of it. > > I think Theo needs to put his foot down on this issue. I would think of > openSSH as separate from openBSD. I would not advocate changing licenses > on > the rest of openBSD. Of course, the downside is that some of the > corporations > might withhold documentation needed for driver development unless the > license > is lifted. > > Cheers, > > Brian > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > > -- Felipe Brant Scarel PATUX/OpenBSD Project Leader (http://www.patux.cic.unb.br)
