GPLv3 is an Eldorado for Dan. http://floatingpoint.wordpress.com/2006/10/13/free-as-in-difficult/
-------- Free as in difficult October 13th, 2006 Free as in freedom is the rallying cry of Richard M. Stallmans Free Software Foundation. But these guys are anything but easy to deal with, I learned while reporting an article about a new version of the GNU General Public License (GPL) under which Linux is distributed. The license is controlled by the Free Software Foundation; companies can suggest changes, but Stallman has final say. To get an idea what Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Novell and Red Hat are up against, consider what happened when I emailed Stallmans sidekick and attorney, Columbia Law School professor Eben Moglen, asking about whether GPLv2 code (the current stuff) would be compatible with GPLv3 code (the next generation). I was encouraged to ask this question by Stuart Cohen, chief executive of Open Source Development Labs, the vendor-funded consortium that employs Linus Torvalds and supports Linux development. Cohen had been in touch with Moglen and was urging him to make a commitment that v2 and v3 code would be able to work together. Yet Moglen responded to my email with a message marked NOT FOR QUOTATION (centered, all caps) in which he laid out his groundrules for answering my question, which included the following: * a demand that I provide a direct quote from Cohen, rather than a paraphrase; * a demand that I clarify the meaning of the word commitment; * an explanation of whether Forbes was seeking Moglens personal opinion, his opinion as mediator of the GPLv3 drafting process, or a statement of the position of the Free Software Foundation, which Moglen represents. Sheesh. Thats in response to a simple email asking one question. Imagine trying to haggle out a complex software license with this guy. -------- regards, alexander. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss