Off-topic Re: Automatic GPL termination

[Ernest Prabhakar]

Hi Alexander et al,

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

While we have tried to be flexible about discussions of broader  
license issues -- and valid questions about the nature of the list --  
I think we have officially "jumped the shark" with this particular  
thread.

Discussions about the character and behavior of the FSF and RMS are  
explicitly off-topic for this forum, unless *directly* related to the  
interpretation of a license.

If y'all feel the need to discuss this issue further, please email  
each other privately.  Or flame me privately, if you prefer.

Thanks,
Ernest Prabhakar
OSI Board Observer

	

On Sep 20, 2007, at 12:49 AM, Alexander Terekhov wrote:

> 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