Anthony:
Anthony Towns wrote:
On Tue, Nov 08, 2005 at 11:56:32PM -0600, Bill Gatliff wrote:
And, I mean, seriously: using the threat of legal action to make people
remove free software from the Internet? Whose side are we on here?
No. The threat of legal action to stop the theft of Free software. Big
difference.
First, "theft" isn't an appropriate term to use about copyright violations
-- you're not depriving anyone of their use. Don't buy into the FUD.
With all due respect, and a certain unwillingness to get distracted from
the main thread of discussion or to further inflame an already pretty
volatile situation, I think that "theft" may in fact be the appropriate
term to use here.
The copyright holders of GPL works have made clear the terms under
which others may use, incorporate or derive from those works. Erast
appears to have built and distributed a system that deviates from those
terms. He has constructed and subsequently distributed something that's
apparently of value to him (otherwise he wouldn't have done it), at the
expense of using software that he's not entitled to use for that purpose
(as defined by the terms of the GPL, which is the authority granted to
him by the copyright holders).
Taking something you're not entitled to ~= theft.
Honestly, I wouldn't have replied to this at all except that you accused
me of "buying into the FUD". Just wanted to set the record straight. :)
Whether Erast did so with malicious intent, that's another question
entirely. And frankly, not one that I care to have answered. I mean,
I'm sure Erast is a nice guy and all. But regardless, he's doing what
he's doing; why he's doing it, or whether he even knows that what he's
doing is wrong, is relatively unimportant.
There, I'm all done now. :)
b.g.
--
Bill Gatliff
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