Re: [dev] reboot, arrow in the knee because of the GNU GPL???

From: Philip Rushik <prushik_AT_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 11:11:38 +0900

On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Sylvain BERTRAND <sylware_AT_legeek.net> wrote:
> It did not get to me (I'm an internet children, I'm used to
> trolls).
> On those later threads, I stayed polite and analytical all the
> time except, of course, regarding closed source system software
> manufacturers. Could you pinpoint to me some parts I was
> insulting the participating "subscribers" or engaged in active
> public discredit (like making fun of published code)?

In most parts of the world "dirty lie" is not considered to be very
friendly. Just because you didn't specifically make fun of somebody's
code doesn't mean you were being civil and polite. You were very
aggressive, just take a look back at the things you have written.

> Hey! I was asked to start a new thread. I know it's bad to "steal" the
> topic of a thread like that. Then I did it, and in an instant I
> was told to kill that thread ???

> I started another thread regarding a real life GNU GPL license
> issue of one of suckless subscribers (the holy graal for me). The
> thread was immedialtly "stolen" and strayed away from its primary
> purpose.

> Then I rebooted the thread, and ask the people to be nice and
> respect the purpose of this thread. Code license is important for
> all suckless software and, finally, and we have somebody able to
> reveal to suckless people a real life issue with the GNU GPL.
> This is reasonnably valid to be dealed and discussed by the
> suckless community.

You started an entire thread when you only wanted an answer from one
person. On a topic you have to know is going nowhere, its even been
discussed on the suckless mailing lists before.

I agree that this thread needs to die very soon. It's good advice on
account of there is no beneficial communication happening here.

> Nobody has been able to pinpoint to me pertinent, real life,
> issues with the GNU GPL licenses that would make prefer MIT/BSD
> like licenses. The only thing I have got is, to summerize,
> "trust me, there are some".
> If you have some, I'll be pleased to read about them, because the
> issue from a subscriber seems top secret/classified (how
> convenient!)
> And hey! I cannot disagree on things I'm not told about yet! Come
> on :). I only can disagree on keeping it a secret, that's it.

> I was happy, in a technical argument about choice of SDK build
> system, a "subcriber" swore to me he had real troubles with the
> GNU GPL. Again, when I'm about to get that intell, abracadabra, It
> disappears, and people are frowing eyebrows hard!

The main argument is idealogical in nature. Whether the added
restrictions in the GPL are hurtful or not has never been proven, nor
will it likely ever be. Real examples will be something like "Party A
GPLs his code, Party B could improve it, but doesn't because he
disagrees with GPL/wants to use a different license, therefore the
world is deprived of an improvement to Party A's software". I don't
use GPL because I believe all restriction inhibits progress, and I
have to do extra work to make sure I never derive anything from a
GPL'd source, so GPL hurts me.

Do a search on Google, lot's of people complain about GPL and give
good reasons for it. and valid arguments have been stated here as
well. Its an argument as old as the GPL itself, even you refered to
the disagreement between Stallman and Torvalds over the GPLv3, so you
_must_ be aware of some of the arguments. My own argument is very
similar to Torvalds problem with the v3.

> It's common on web public forums (trolls and super stealth
> kiddies using tor). Why not on a public mailing
> list. Here, they are a bit smarter than their web counter parts,
> that's all, but we are not a lot higher than the sea level (I
> wonder, could they be bots to win the turing price?)

Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn't make them a troll or
a bot. A lot of suckless software already uses MIT/BSD licenses, so
you should have known your ideas would not be popular. The people on
this list are real people that disagree with you.

> That, I just posted it. Apparently, the damage happened before. I
> wonder when... as I said, I'm open minded, I do accept
> constructive critisism.

Saying it is not enough.
Received on Thu Jun 26 2014 - 04:11:38 CEST