rms at 1407.org claiming "licenses aren't contracts" and that...

[Chris Travers]

On 10/19/07, Donovan Hawkins <hawkins at cephira.com> wrote:
>
>
> Alexander Terekhov wrote:
> >
> > Why not discuss here on *license discuss* forum (not license approval
> > or some such)
> http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Horn/99/RTCOMP.htm
> > ruling by the United States Court of Federal Claims...
>
> Because that is not the stated purpose of this list, as has been pointed out
> many times. Try looking at more than the name of the list...titles are
> generally non-normative.

While I think that there is an issue that the OSI has failed to
provide any public statement about the actual purpose of the list (all
we have are a few disparate mentions of things that are supposed to be
discussed here and *no* statements about what the list is actually
about other than its name), I would still qualify Alexander as
off-topic here.

Furthermore, it seems that Alexander a) does not respond to emails
from these conversations sent privately and b) brings up the same
points over and over in confrontational ways (regardless of general
agreement or lack thereof from this list with specific points such as
whether licenses are contracts), a reasonable person could easily
conclude that Alexander was simply trolling.

In short, I am not sure that Alexander's posts can be fairly
categorized in any way other than to make analogies to "BSD is Dying"
posts on Slashdot.

I would therefore recommend that if Alexander does not wish to be
labeled as a troll, that he stop this sort of behavior.  We cannot
read his mind and can only conclude such things based upon his
actions.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers