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

["Daniel A. Ramaley" <daniel.ramaley@example.com>]

On Monday 05 May 2008 22:01, Curt Sampson wrote:
>> Proprietary and free are not mutually exclusive; copyleft is a
>> prominent example.
>
>I'll buy that for a dollar. Though my blood pressure's just going to
>get raised again by GPL advocates claiming then that it's not at all
>proprietary, and is in fact the most free license out there, and it's
>free speech, not free beer.

I like the idea of considering GPL simultaneously proprietary and free. 
I hadn't considered that before.

As for how "free" the GPL is, licensing is a regular topic of discussion 
on the OpenBSD-misc list. The simplest way i've seen put forth to judge 
how free a license is is by the length. Usually, the shorter it is, the 
freer it is. Compare and contrast BSD versus GPL licensing; GPL is much 
longer, and is less free.

If you need even more free than BSD, there's always this one, which is 
basically the same as putting something in the public domain for 
countries that don't allow authors to actually put their work into the 
public domain:
http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/
Warning: the license itself contains profanity.

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Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
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