From: baford@labhp23.cs.utah.edu (bryan ford) Subject: Re: Public domain software? Date: 28 Nov 1992 11:08:55 MST
>>the meaning of the term "free software". I do believe that several
>>people (including RMS, if I remember correctly) have frequently pointed
>>out that the "free" in "free software" w.r.t. to GNU doesn't really mean
>>that the software is available for no-money-down, but rather, it refers
>>to the fact that the software is unencumbered (tho, I guess some may
>>argue over the details of the GPL).
>
>The GPL is a significant encumberance. Is there anyone working on anything
>significant (compilers, operating systems, editors, etc.) that will be
>public domain? I've tried a couple of times on the OS front, but these
>projects have always died due to lack of time. Is anyone else either
>doing this, or planning to do this?
Did it ever occur to you that there might be a connection between the
abundance of excellent GPL-based software and the lack of
"significant" public domain software? Public domain software gets
snatched up and proprietarized by greedy people and companies, and
thereafter gets shattered into a thousand different competing threads
of development which can never be reconciled. The "encumberances" of
the GPL hold the software together and make it possible for the
software grow into what we have today.
If the GPL is a "significant encumbrance" to what you want to do with
the software, then what you want to do with the software is probably
not in the interests of the original authors of that software or of
the "general public". If you think this statement is wrong, then I
would be happy to see a counterexample.
Bryan Ford
baford@cs.utah.edu