Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: cas_news@strotmann.de (Carsten Strotmann (Usenet)) Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: GPL Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:12:31 +0100 Lines: 32 Message-ID: <87ty4ifjw0.fsf@csgate4.strotmann.de> References: <78821811918436@frunobulax.edu> <988b5b19-8df5-4ebd-9af8-b1ef62d164c5@d10g2000vbk.googlegroups.com> <1c5e333c-d04f-4492-bc3c-116532c7706c@z19g2000vbe.googlegroups.com> <2aefef68-2340-48b5-920f-f71d5c10a2ce@o14g2000vbo.googlegroups.com> <3edc4464-4669-48ec-9e05-b5ec94963230@k10g2000yqk.googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: individual.net kOwpTDQvL1C2O3FXLONf9gfQ5KqinHbo0v5K9I7ShoOGTaNxbf Cancel-Lock: sha1:mY1fYE8fQZ3NSkX1D3cnKOOZl9A= sha1:idyP//rvETL1HI0tJ+/b63BGs0w= User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.3 (berkeley-unix) Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.forth:8461 Hi Mark, Mark Wills writes: > Man, this GPL/LGPL stuff sounds like a real mess to me. What's the > point? What's to stop you putting your code on the 'net and saying "I > retain copyright, but here, take it" like have with my Forth system? > (these are genuine questions, not sarcasm). "but here, take it" is not a valid license in our legal system. Someone who would like to use your code would need to contact you to get a proper license from you before re-using your code. That might be fine, but has limits. The problem with this approach is that contact information written in source code will become stale (E-Mail addresses not working, Phone numbers that don't exist anymore ...). There is quite a lot of code out there where the author has taken the "but here, take it" approach, but this code cannot be re-used, because it is impossible to contact the author. It might be that the author or a new owner of the copyright will come after the programmer who uses the code later on. That is a risk many programmers and businesses are not willing to take. The GPL/LGPL are valid licenses. They have been created with the help of lawyers and have been prooven in court many times now. The GPL/LGPL Licenses transfer specific rights to anyone that would like to re-use the code. This is what the programmer and the business can rely on. That is the value of having a good "free software" license. -- Carsten