Automatic GPL termination

Alexander Terekhov alexander.terekhov at gmail.com
Thu Sep 20 07:49:13 UTC 2007


On 9/19/07, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p at wanadoo.fr> wrote:

[... The GNU project and democracy ...]

Let's see. (This is just one example...)

Thomas Bushnell, BSG, the primary architect of the Hurd
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html was dismissed by RMS
because he has publicly spoken against the GNU Free Documentation
License http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2003/09/msg00707.html ...
http://softwarelibero.it/pipermail/discussioni/2003-November/008465.html

------
4) RMS has now "dismissed" me as Hurd maintainer because I have
   publicly spoken against the GFDL, saying that a GNU maintainer must
   support and speak in favor of GNU policies.  If this is really
   RMS's reason, then it means that he demands the right to control
   the speech of every GNU volunteer when it comes to GNU project
   policies.  He wants not merely to set the direction, but also to
   require that each and every one of us publicly support a GNU policy
   when asked to.

I do not know what the right response is.  I believe perhaps the best
thing to do is to create structures for GNU project volunteers to
express their opinions so that we can even find out what the GNU
project thinks.  Heretofore, RMS has been an able spokesman, but when
he disregards the comments of volunteers (even when explicitly
solicited), works against free software, and attempts to control the
speech of GNU volunteers in talking about such issues, something has
gone very wrong.
------

regards,
alexander.

--
"PJ points out that lawyers seem to have difficulty understanding the
GPL. My main concern with GPLv3 is that - unlike v2 - non-lawyers can't
understand it either."
                                -- Anonymous Groklaw Visitor



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