Essay RFC delayed.

[Brian Behlendorf]

On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Richard Stallman wrote:
>     > I believe more hackers would rather listen to Richard than to you, Eric.
> 
>     I disagree.  I think both of them are worth listening to.
> 
> I think there is no need to compare, because Eric and I mostly talk
> about different things.
> 
> I think Eric has had some worthwhile and insightful things to say.
> I've been impressed and persuaded by some of them.  Convincing
> business with practical arguments can help our community.
> 
> However, Eric and the Open Source movement deliberately avoid the
> issues that I focus on most: issues of principle.  They do not say
> that we deserve freedom to share and change software, 

That would be incorrect, at least from my vantage point.  A core principle
of the Open Source Definition is the right to fork - which is, the right
to share and change software beyond the control of the original party.  
Whether this mandate should be viral upon derivatives is, of course, where
we differ.  However I think it is as important as the right to examine
code and be able to modify it for personal use, as it is the main device
for securing the long-term availability of the code - code that can not
be forked can wither and die against the wishes of others, either by
design or accidentally. 

Also, I want to clarify a statement I made earlier regarding GNOME - I did
not mean to imply it wasn't part of the GNU Project.  I still don't think,
though, that everyone who works on GNOME does so for primarily political
reasons, and for that reasons I question those who claim it's part of a
"movement".  Clearly Richard, and Miguel, have a different opinion.
That's fine.

	Brian