Re: Wasting our Freedom

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@kernel.org>]

On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 at 05:15:05PM +0200, Paul de Weerd wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 at 03:38:45PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> | It's not about lazyness of BSD developers, many people who consider the 
> | BSD licence more free than the GPL argue that the advantage of the BSD 
> | licence is that it does not require you to give back.
> | 
> | Something is wrong if your licence text clearly states that you do not 
> | require getting anything back but you then argue on moral grounds that
> | something has to be given back.
> 
> Something is wrong if your licence text clearly states that you MUST
> give back, but then you don't return the favour on grounds that "hey,
> they don't require it, so we don't have to".
>...

The GPL doesn't require to give back under a licence that gives less 
protection for the code than the GPL does.

If you take the BSD licence seriously you don't request to get anything 
back on moral grounds.

If you take the GPL seriously you don't want your modifications being 
available with less protection.

In reality, where it makes sense technically, it's quite likely that an 
author will make his modifications, or even a completely self-written 
driver, also available under the terms of the BSD licence when asked in 
a friendly way.

> Paul 'WEiRD' de Weerd
>...

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed