Re: [tlug] Bill Gates and the GPL , let the flames begin

[Joe Larabell <fred62@example.com>]

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008, Daniel A. Ramaley wrote:

> On Monday 28 April 2008 20:52, Curt Sampson wrote:
> > If I happen to have spent a lot of time and effort writing, say, an
> > office suite, and I link the few-thousand-line readline library with
> > my millions of lines of code...
>
> If i write a 10 line program and link it to the few-thousand readline
> library, i have to release my program as open source, right? ... If you 
> don't like the licensing terms on the readline library, find a different 
> library to use. Or just write a library yourself.

Exactly... The difference, of course, is that it probably took a lot more 
time to write the million-line office suite than the 10-line application. 
And therein lies the rub. The source code itself is not the thing that has 
value -- that's just bits on a wire or a magnetic patter. What has value 
is the time that went into creating it. If I spent three weeks writing a 
million-line program (I work really fast ;-) and I decide to share my work 
with others, I don't see any problem with requiring whomever uses my work 
to share whatever they were able to produce with the three weeks they 
saved not having to re-implement my functions. There may be an infinite 
amount of sand (to borrow someone else's analogy) but... if it's *my* sand 
and you bring along a bucket and shovel, hoping to play, is there anything 
morally or ethically wrong with my asking you to share your bucket and 
shovel as a condition for playing in my sandbox? Isn't that what the GPL 
is basically about: enforced sharing?

It would be nice if somehow the efforts of all coders was automatically 
laid bare for all to see and use. But as long as there is someone out 
there who sees nothing wrong with absorbing, enhancing, and selling *my* 
work without giving anything back, I (as a programmer) don't see anything 
wrong with my adding an "enforced sharing" condition to your use of my 
efforts. If someone objects, they're certainly free to spend their *own* 
three weeks re-implementing those million lines, thank you very much ;-).

---
Joseph L (Joe) Larabell            Never fight with a dragon
http://larabell.org/                    for thou art crunchy
http://thelemicleague.org/        and goest well with cheese.