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Still no new license -- but draft text available

Gary Momarison nobody at phony.org
Sat Aug 12 00:00:02 EDT 2000 
"John W. Stevens" <jstevens at basho.fc.hp.com> writes:

> I've thought about taking projects released under the BSD license,
> cloning them, then releasing them under the more generous GPL license. 
> Such is life . . .

It should be.  Kinda nice to have the freedom to pick your own license
for the work you add to some open code, isn't it?  Too bad you 
copyleftists won't cooperate with those of us in the free world and
allow us the same freedom in return.  But were pro-choice, so choose 
selfishness if you think it gives you the advantages you've claimed.


IIRC, these generously licensed projects have been forked by copyleftists:

    WxWindows went copyleft (though still have old licenses somehow)
    Fresco (GUI library being reinvented by the GNOME crowd) is being
        used in an effort to replace X and current desktops.
    ivtools almost did a year ago and may have done so by now.
    Many parts of the Linux kernel.

Plus a few from the Public Domain:

    GRASS, a large GIS application.
    Several parts of the Linux kernel.

Of course, claiming copyright in something doesn't make it so.  One only
gets copyright protection for things one's own work.  Unfortunately,
people who see old code in a new fork usually can't tell which license
covers it in fact.  There should be a home for abandoned generously
licensed software so people can find it that want to make their own
forks.  Like the last CWI-owned Python and the last CNRI Python with the
CWI license.


I think John is pulling our chain with that "more generous GPL" crack.
Good one, John.  I see your troll caught one, too.
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