From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756537AbXIEGGR (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Sep 2007 02:06:17 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751713AbXIEGGG (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Sep 2007 02:06:06 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([198.137.202.10]:37288 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751328AbXIEGGE (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Sep 2007 02:06:04 -0400 Message-ID: <46DE473D.6010805@zytor.com> Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:05:49 +0100 From: "H. Peter Anvin" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.5 (X11/20070719) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jeff Garzik CC: "Jonathan A. George" , Matthew Jacob , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: "GPL weasels and the atheros stink" References: <46DAF70E.9060800@austin.rr.com> <7579f7fb0709021131g43768bcet5a0895b5e56540ef@mail.gmail.com> <46DB0960.9060405@austin.rr.com> <46DB1080.5060502@garzik.org> In-Reply-To: <46DB1080.5060502@garzik.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Jeff Garzik wrote: > Jonathan A. George wrote: >> ... But is it _ethical_ (as opposed to legal) to violate the expressed >> intent of the original author ... > > The author expresses his intent primarily by choice of license text, and > it's very important to all of us that we follow the rules set forth by > the author in that license text. > I have released software on more on one occasion where I have given a very liberal license (like MIT), and then put a "however, if you like this, X would be appreciated." I wouldn't consider it unethical if someone didn't obey the optional request (it's optional for a reason), however, it does mean that I do genuinely appreciate someone doing X. So there is a difference between what is legal and ethical, and what is the nice/friendly thing to do. -hpa