On Feb 16, 2007, Jeff Garzik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Alexandre Oliva wrote: >> On Feb 15, 2007, Jeff Garzik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> Michael K. Edwards wrote: >>>> On 2/15/07, Jeff Garzik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>>>> The /whole point/ of the GPL is to funnel contributions back. >> >>>> Bzzzt. The whole point of the GPL is to "guarantee your freedom to >>>> share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for >>>> all its users." >> >>> No, that's the FSF marketing fluff you've been taught to recite. >> >> The same FSF that wrote the GPL, no less ;-) >> >>> I'm referring to the original reason why Linus chose the GPL
>> If he chose it for this reason, he chose the wrong license. > Strange, then, how its been so successful in funelling back contributions. There's nothing strange about it. Promoting (as opposed to mandating) contributions is a great possible, even probable consequence of the GPL, but it is far from being the whole point of the GPL. If Linus' whole point had been to funnel back contributions, assuming he fully understood the GPL back when he chose it, he'd probably have chosen a different license that *required* contributions to be funneled back. And then Linux would have remained non-Free Software. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ FSF Latin America Board Member http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED], gcc.gnu.org} Free Software Evangelist [EMAIL PROTECTED], gnu.org} - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
