[Discuss] Govt Source Code Policy

Rich Pieri richard.pieri at gmail.com
Fri Apr 8 09:55:02 EDT 2016


On 4/7/2016 10:32 PM, IngeGNUe wrote:
> No, that's exactly what I mean by privatization.

Okay. I'm cool with it.

I find it interesting that you mean this and then go on to call the GPL
the best software license for the public good. RMS created the first GPL
and founded the FSF because, well, to put it bluntly, he threw a temper
tantrum when Symbolics privatized the public domain LISP interpreter he
gave them. RMS created the GPL with the specific intent of making it
impossible to privatize public software.


> There's a certain hesitation to make the property comparison, but I
> think it's partially correct (the 'ware' part of soft-ware).

Not from me. Software is not intrinsically different from property. It
cannot be, because if it is then adding "software to" to an existing
invention creates a new, patentable invention. I'm *not* cool with this.

-- 
Rich P.



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