Re: new webpage: rikai.com

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Todd" == Todd Rudick <trudick@example.com> writes:

    << GPL it, and if it's any good at all,

Bletch.  Non-standard quoting.

    Todd>   Good point (although the javascript is minimal, there is a
    Todd> good analogy with bison), but my concern is more than just
    Todd> that it'll get away from me. Running the web-server is a
    Todd> monthly cost. Advertising on the site may allow me to recoup
    Todd> that, or more (so far, no, but maybe)--If I GPL the thing
    Todd> and people put up mirrors all over the place, that's out the
    Todd> window.

That's why you have to have content.  If all you're providing is the
service, as soon as people notice you're drawing adverts, it's all over.

    Todd>   Secondly, my experience with JavaDict, which is GPLed, was
    Todd> not completely encouraging. It was ported several times to
    Todd> different languages, and finally an excellent version by
    Todd> Marshall Ramsey ended up on the web (on Monash), without the
    Todd> source. Marshall's neural-net improvements were far from
    Todd> trivial, and (as a result, I believe) nobody's touched it
    Todd> since. I'm not really upset or anything, as the thing can be
    Todd> used for free and is quite good.

Either you're making my point for me or you're making my point for me.
If Ramsey's code was based on yours, then the source should be there.
You should enforce the GPL; not enforcing it weakens the whole
concept.  I am quite sure that Monash would pull the code if it
violated GPL; you don't need to go to court.

On the other hand, if it's not based on your code, then that just goes
to prove that it is easy and likely that somebody will come up with
another version, and quite possibly better.

    Todd>   Lastly, although I'm happy to let regular people use the
    Todd> free server, there may be other opportunities if I keep the
    Todd> source private--'nuff said.

??  GPL does not mean that _you_ can't sell a product based on the
code; only that others can't very effectively.  GPL is an excellent
tool for monopolists; the only better one I can think of is AFPL.

By the way, `rikai' thoroughly screwed up my home page:

		  http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/

I attribute the presentation problems to Mozilla, and of course the
Javascript doesn't work (Mozilla doesn't do Javascript yet, at all
AFAIK).  But there was also mojibake, and it was there in "View
Source."


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