"viral" (was RE: Licensing options for firmware)

[Rodrigo Barbosa]

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On Tue, Apr 12, 2005 at 07:52:39PM +0100, Alex Bligh wrote:
> >"If I license my stuff to you on these terms, you agree to license
> >your stuff to ME on the same terms".
> 
> Well, modulo the definition of "stuff" and depersonalizing it that's what
> the GPL and indeed most reciprocal licenses say. I will write it
> slightly more clearly, and more symmetrically:
> 
> "If I license my contributions to this project to whoever I distribute it
> to on these terms, you agree to license your contributions to the project
> to the whoever you distribute it to on the same terms".

That doesn't fall without the word "reciprocal". Just questioning the
use of the word here.

Focusing so much on the "viral" word only lends it force. All this
thread spawned from it. It is like screaming, in a classroom,
"I'm not four-eyed!!!". You bet that will get you a nickname.

Let me be blunt about this. I find it simply stupid to spend so much
time and energy on "semantic" and "conotation" issues when there is
so much more important work to do.

If you don't want people to call the GPL viral, just ignore them,
and they will stop. Making a great fuss about it just lend their
argument force.

> >And so you should expect
> >encountering it all the time. Just going into "bash them" mode doesn't
> >help, and only hurts the open source movement.
> 
> Why you think I'm bashing anyone I don't know. Perhaps you are confusing
> me with another poster.

This comment was not targeted at you specifically, but rather on most
of the people that replied to this subject.

In any case, I failed to noticed this discussion had died already.
Sorry for bringing it back, it was not my intention.

- -- 
Rodrigo Barbosa <rodrigob at suespammers.org>
"Quid quid Latine dictum sit, altum viditur"
"Be excellent to each other ..." - Bill & Ted (Wyld Stallyns)

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