Re: definition of "free" for N-millionth time

[Aaron R. Kulkis]

Tim Hanson wrote:
> 
> Pat McCann wrote:
> >
> > Steve Mading <madings@baladi.bmrb.wisc.edu> writes:
> >
> > > The main complaint of the anti-GPL crowd seems to be that they
> > > want free software to be a one-way street - they want to be
> > > parasites of free software rather than participants in it.
> >
> > That starts, continues, and ends in error.
> >
> > The Start - Our main complaint has nothing to do with streets, but with
> > signage.  We think that the pro-GPL crowd is misleading open source
> > software developers into using the GPL without sufficient understanding
> > of the issues on the part of the developers and often (but by no means
> > always) on the part of the pro-GPL crowd.
> 
> I don't know what's to be misunderstood here.  The short answer is that
> if one uses GPL code, his/her code must be GPL also.  Compare that to
> the average commercial click-through EULA and you'll see a big
> difference.
> 
> > The Kernel - No, we want free software to be a two-way street, but we
> > don't set up roadblocks on one side when there's insufficient traffic
> > on the other.
> 
> Rhetoric alert.  "Our side favors two way streets (which means your side
> must favor one-way streets, how terrible).  Not only that, your side
> sets up roadblocks (which means our side must remove roadblocks, goodie
> for us).  We have the white hats here!"  Please.  If we're going to
> discuss this, can you cut the crap?
> 
> Pontification follows:
> 
> > Free software should be about the (often unbalanced)
> > two-way gifting of copyrights and not about the (often unbalanced)
> > two-way trading of copyrights, which is what copyleft is about.
> > ("You
> 
> Okay, so you're here to tell us how the world should work, right?
> 
> Right on schedule, here comes the slurring, hostile, one-phrase
> description of what the GPL is all about:
> 
> > may not derive from my code unless I may derive from yours.")
> 
> Put on your white hat again, here comes some more rhetoric:
> 
> > We think
> 
> Oh we do, do we?  Who is "we?"  Is it the human race?  Perhaps it's
> freedom loving people everywhere, or maybe it's a bunch of programmers
> who don't like the GPL, or maybe it's just you.
> 
> > it is better for everyone if people are allowed to be parasites as they
> > see fit rather than wasting their time recoding from scratch.  Etc.,
> > etc.  We prefer not to deal in the trading of intellectual property
> > rights.  It seems so commercial and proprietary, if you know what I mean.
> 
> Great.  So now those nasty pro-GPLers are commercial and proprietary,
> those bad people!
> 
> > The Unfair Insult - Our arugments contain nothing that depends on any
> > desire to be parasites and not participants.  We could just as well be
> > pure parasites or pure paticipants and have made the same statements.
> > It is very unfair of you to ascribe motives for which you have supplied
> > no evidence and which are irrelevent in any case.
> 
> Pot <--> Kettle

In this case, it's a case of the Pot calling the *snow* black.


> 
> > In closing, our main complaint about the GPL might be that its use has
> > made so many projects ones in which we don't WANT to participate,
> > leaving us generally frustrated and discouraged.
> 
> "Ours?"  Here we have it folks, the chosen representative of all that's
> right about BSD licensing, educating the rest of us right here on
> c.o.l.a.  I feel so honored.
> 
> Oooo!  I'm getting dizzy.  Stop the spinning!!
> 
> --
> "Life may have no meaning -- or even worse, it may have a meaning of
> which I disapprove."


-- 
Aaron R. Kulkis
Unix Systems Engineer
DNRC Minister of all I survey
ICQ # 3056642

K: Truth in advertising:
        Left Wing Extremists Charles Schumer and Donna Shelala,
        Black Seperatist Anti-Semite Louis Farrakan,
        Special Interest Sierra Club,
        Anarchist Members of the ACLU
        Left Wing Corporate Extremist Ted Turner
        The Drunken Woman Killer Ted Kennedy
        Grass Roots Pro-Gun movement,


J: Other knee_jerk reactionaries: billh, david casey, redc1c4,
   The retarded sisters: Raunchy (rauni) and Anencephielle (Enielle),
   also known as old hags who've hit the wall....

I: Loren Petrich's 2-week stubborn refusal to respond to the
   challenge to describe even one philosophical difference
   between himself and the communists demonstrates that, in fact,
   Loren Petrich is a COMMUNIST ***hole

H: "Having found not one single carbon monoxide leak on the entire
    premises, it is my belief, and Willard concurs, that the reason
    you folks feel listless and disoriented is simply because
    you are lazy, stupid people"

G:  Knackos...you're a retard.


F: Unit_4's "Kook hunt" reminds me of "Jimmy Baker's" harangues against
   adultery while concurrently committing adultery with Tammy Hahn.

E: Jet is not worthy of the time to compose a response until
   her behavior improves.

D: Jet Silverman now follows me from newgroup to newsgroup
   ...despite (C) above.
 
C: Jet Silverman claims to have killfiled me.

B: Jet Silverman plays the fool and spews out nonsense as a
   method of sidetracking discussions which are headed in a
   direction that she doesn't like.

A:  The wise man is mocked by fools.