On Mon, 2003-03-03 at 16:30, Glenn Maynard wrote:
> > Even if there is a problem, it's not even on the order of the BSD
> > advertising clause -- it doesn't make the software non-free. And if
> > there is a problem, it's a genuine problem which ought to be fixed.
>
> A string of piped commands might output five such notices; a foreach
> loop might output hundreds. [1] I agree that it's not on the order of the
> BSD clause; at least we can disable it, though we might have to research
> how it's done differently in dozens of packages. I believe it's
> potentially extremely annoying, but (unlike the BSD clause) it generally
> hasn't been, in my experience. ("Hasn't been" isn't "will never be",
> though.)
>
> Forcing me to mention the copyrights of underlying tools on my webpage
> (or the existance of underlying tools at all, for that matter; users
> don't care and can ask if they do, so don't bloat my pages) is orders of
> magnitude more annoying, though. It's extremely non-free, in the view of,
> well, my own subjective opinion.
That most users don't care hardly seems like an argument -- indeed, most
users don't care whether software is Free Software at all, or whether
the author is being credited properly, or most anything else related to
licensing.
Additionally. PHPNuke *isn't* merely an underlying tool -- its
copyrighted layout, graphics, HTML, and Javascript are included in its
output.
> [1] Continuing the idea that using these programs in a complicated
> but user-typed shell string is still "interactive"; it's probably exactly
> this problem that the "interactive" qualification was intended to prevent.
> However, recalling the context, Branden's argument was, I believe, that if a
> web session is interactive with respect to the tools generating them, then
> manual shell scripting is, too.
When you say "the tools generating them", I think this hides a
significant difference between the cases, which I describe above.
Nonetheless, I agree that there is a potential problem here. I have a
hard time coming up with a clear articulation, tho.
--
-Dave Turner Stalk Me: 617 441 0668
"On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters
of principle, stand like a rock." -Thomas Jefferson
