Re: Ada in Debian: most libraries will switch to the pure GPL in Etch

[M E Leypold <development-2006-8ecbb5cc8aREMOVETHIS@ANDTHATm-e-leypold.de>]

"Dr. Adrian Wrigley" <amtw@linuxchip.demon.co.uk.uk.uk> writes:

> The strange thing is that nobody seems to benefit from the changes
> and the consequent FUD :(

Exactly. I still wonder why AdaCore doesn't speak up clearly, saying
when the license change occurred, letting the old versions under GMGPL
(even if they now come from their site). Yes, there is a certain
probability of a community supported version arising. It won't hurt
them, since I don't think those wanting to buy Gnat Pro support would
really want a community supported version (read: slowly maintained, no
support on demand, no new Gtk features) anyway.

My guess would be that they actually forgot the anon cvs and forgot to
strip the linking excaption there and are now entrenching themselves
in a probably untenable legal theory that (a) the license notices in
the files have no meaning whatsoever and (b) everything is GPL now,
even the old versions, because they don't want anyone to become wise
on that and just compile himself GtkAda from the CVS source to get a
GMGPL library. (IANAL).

I'd wish that a really big player would do exactly that. It'd be
against the spririt of free software (I usually try even to get the
authors agreement if I'm mirroring sources from their distribution
sites) and an act of blatant and arrogant highway robbery, but it
would be a sort of just punishment. That wont happen, I know, but one
can dream. (I bet it would happen if I forgot to put my license
notices right).

Looking at the CVS I tend to think that even the 2.8.x source should
still be GMGPL mostly. But IANAL. 

Regards -- Markus