Re: GNAT GPL 2005: Too clever by half?

["rleif" <rleif@rleif.com>]

Those of you attending SIGAda 2005 in Atlanta
(http://www.acm.org/sigada/conf/sigada2005/)can continue this
discussion at the Commercializing Ada workshop on Wednesday, November
16.
A presentation on the Progresssive Software approach will be given by
Robert Leif with material created by Marius Alves.
Bob Leif

Chad  R. Meiners wrote:
> From: Georg Bauhaus
> <quote>
> That's contained in the smiley.
> People tend to sell others' work as their own. I'm not saying you
> do. Some licenses permit this, some licenses ask to not mention,
> others require that you mention others' work.
> In case people complain that they cannot "overwrite" the terms
> and conditions of the GPLicense with their own, it is only fair
> to ask whether they intend to sell others' work as their own.
> I did use the word "ask" knowing that I didn't really
> ask in the sense of asking, asking you not to question my use
> of asking on the ground of questionable monosemy.
> <\quote>
>
> Oh come on.  I haven't even complained about not being able to
> overwrite the GPL.  You are jumping the gun and assuming that I have
> all these problems with the GPL.  Just because I am critical of RMS
> doesn't mean that I am against various projects that he works on.  I am
> an avid user of emacs for example.
>
> However, the GPL doesn't prevent people from stealing your labor.  It
> might prevent someone from taking you labor and hiding it under a
> bucket, but it does not prevent thief.
>
> <quote>
> Natural language not only invites interpretation, the fact that
> it cannot be formalized, let alone be coverd by {T, F}, is central
> to some of the most precious pieces of human heritage.
> <\quote>
>
> Just because we can't formalize natural language does not mean that we
> do not need to be careful when interpreting it.  If anything it means
> that we need to be more precise, and that we should ask for
> clarification more often.
>
> This is why I am critical of statements like "The GPL simply prevents
> others from stealing your labor."  Such statements are so imprecise
> that they are useless.  Sure it sounds like great propaganda, but the
> statement isn't actually true.
> 
> If you want to discuss this more, let's do it over email.
> 
> -CRM