Re: what DOES the GPL really say?

[kenner@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner)]

In article <m2en8ttgpr.fsf@devo.ridgenet.net> Ronald Cole <ronald@ridgenet.net> writes:
>You may actually be surprised at what Stallman's ideals actually are!
>I thought as you did, and pressed Richard about the altruism he
>describes in his GNU Manifesto.  He told me that "[I was] interpreting
>what [he] wrote in a way that is not [his] interpretation."  I then
>asked him to explain just exactly how he got from "if I like a program
>I must share it with other people who like it" to "each person should
>be free to decide who not to give a copy to".

I don't speak for Stallman, but these two are both types of freedoms.
If I receive (or develop) a program, I must be free to be able to give
it to anybody I want, but I must also be free to not have to spend my
resources giving it to people to whom I do not wish to distribute it
to.  The latter freedom is as important as the first, and perhaps more
so.  If the act of developing (or simply receiving a copy of) a
program creates a burden on me to spend my resources making that
available to anybody who requests it, I cannot, as a practical matter,
either develop or receive such a program since doing so would obligate
me to a burden I could not afford.

The point is that if I distribute GPL'ed software to somebody, I
cannot *forbid* them from redistributing it.  I also cannot *require*
them to redistribute it.  I can *suggest* to them that they either not
redistribute it or, alternatively, that they widely redistribute it.  If
my reasons are convincing and do not impose an unreasonable burden,
they can choose to follow my suggestions (this is especiallyt true where
there is a friendly relationship between me and that person).  Or can they
can choose not to follow them.

If they choose the latter, I am perfectly free not to give them a copy
of some program in the future.

All of these choices are different types of freedoms.

The one and only requirement to distribute something imposed by the
GPL is that if I choose to give the program only in binary form to
some person, I am then *required* to make the sources available to
that person or to any person to whom they redistributed the binaries
(but to no other people).