From: dewar@gnat.com
Subject: Re: Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future
Date: 1999/02/05
Date: 1999-02-05T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <79eq4l$m1a$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 36ba730b.35540068@news.pacbell.net
In article <36ba730b.35540068@news.pacbell.net>,
tmoran@bix.com (Tom Moran) wrote:
> > GNAT does NOT use the LGPL, whatever
> >made you think it does?
> Aye, that's *exactly* the question.
> Perhaps if a new sacred terminology hadn't been
> invented for the FSF religion, but ordinary words had
> ordinary meanings, fewer people would
> misunderstand or feel that they didn't understand.
> Company lawyers don't freak out when they see a Microsoft
> copyright, but they may say "what's this" when they see a
> "copyleft".
Note that Tom is involved with selling proprietary
software, so it is certainly in his interest that people
be worried about this :-)
But in fact, there is no problem here.
Lawyers do not "freak out" when they see the General
Public License, which incidentally does not use the
term "copyleft". This license is a legal document,
written by lawyers with the help of technical people,
intended to be read by both users and lawyers (just
like any other software license).
Yes it can be confusing to people who have not read
the license that the "free" in free software talks
about freedom and not lack of $$$. This is an unfortunate
ambiguity in English, but one that should not be too
difficult for people to deal with (I assume that when
people read a license plate that says "Live Free or
Die", they do not think that this is about saving money!)
Yes, that needs explaining, not to lawyers, since the GPL
is quite explicit and clear (paragraph two of the preamble
says:
When we speak of free software, we are referring to
freedom, not price.)
but it does need explaining to non-lawyers, especially
when they have been confused by posts such as those
recently made by Tom and Larry.
Lawyers certainly have no trouble understanding such
language, and in our experience, we have had no trouble in
interacting with lawyers who are reading the GPL. We have
occasionally in the past, much less recently, run into
situations where there have been rules against the use of
"free software", but once the lawyers get their hands on
the appropriate license agreements, they are then quite
comfortable.
The are often a bit puzzled that we would use a license
agreement that is so generous, and so unconcerned with
desparate protection of our "intellectual property", but
they can easily understand that from the point of view of
the licensee, all their requirements are met.
It is definitely true that the term open software causes
less confusion in some (non-legal) circles, since it
emphasizes an important aspect of free software.
However, there is open source software and open source
software, and not all of it is anywhere near "free" in the
sense of "freedom", so you also have to be careful with
license agreements there too.
The bottom line: the world of free software and open source
software does not somehow free you of your obligation to
carefully check that when you are using someone else's
software you are not violating their leagl rights under the
appropriate copyright law.
Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies
P.S. It's easier in other languages. ACT/Europe uses the
slogan "GNAT, c'est libre, mais c'est n'est pas gratuit",
but that's not easily translatable into English :-)
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-02-05 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 102+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-01-31 0:00 Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future Alexy V Khrabrov
1999-01-31 0:00 ` Simon Wright
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Alexy V Khrabrov
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Jeff Carter
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Ehud Lamm
1999-02-02 0:00 ` Pointer Arithmetic (was: Wanted: Ada STL....) adam
1999-02-02 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-03 0:00 ` adam
1999-02-03 0:00 ` William Clodius
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-02 0:00 ` Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future Brian Rogoff
1999-02-02 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Ehud Lamm
1999-02-03 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Hyman Rosen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Hyman Rosen
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-06 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Ehud Lamm
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-02-08 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Al Christians
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Pat Rogers
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Pat Rogers
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dewar [this message]
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-06 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-08 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-08 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-08 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-09 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-09 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-07 0:00 ` Simon Wright
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Open Source Licensing (was: Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future) dennison
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-09 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-09 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
1999-02-09 0:00 ` Wanted: Ada STL. Reward: Ada's Future robert_dewar
1999-02-09 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-10 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-07 0:00 ` Simon Wright
[not found] ` <36ba730b.35540068@ <79fmg1$fn0$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
1999-02-06 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
[not found] ` <79f24e$t14 <36BB4162.52FC6D9F@averstar.com>
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-06 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-09 0:00 ` micro_ada
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-08 0:00 ` John English
1999-02-02 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-02-03 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Stanley R. Allen
1999-02-01 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Jerry van Dijk
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-02-01 0:00 ` Jeff Carter
1999-02-08 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1999-02-05 0:00 ` Corey Minyard
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