Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2011/06/26/identica-weekly.html

Identi.ca Summary, 2011-06-19 through 2011-06-26

• The conversation
  that I
  mentioned last week
  about GPL for Javascript
  libraries continued in a new thread this week. The thread was
  rather long:
  • @fontana rather
    strangely argued that no one
    should use GPL for Javascript, this seemed
    like a generally
    anti-copyleft position to me, and @fontana went on further to say
    he’s now anti-copyleft in
    some situations, when it relates
    to proprietary
    relicensing.
  • I pointed out,
    using OpenFOAM
    as an example that being
    against illegitimate use of otherwise good things doesn’t mean you need
    to be universally against the thing.
  • There was
    a subthread
    discussing how GPL requirements work with Javascript, but the
    subthread diverged into a discussion of CLAs and Fedora,
    wherein @fontana strangely
    said that multiple copyright holders won’t solve proprietary relicensing
    problem.
  • @fontana asked for example of a
    GPL’d Javascript library with multiple copyright holders (i.e., one that
    isn’t using a proprietary recliensing business model). I’d much
    appreciate if someone can look for an example of a GPL’d
    Javascript library matching the criteria @fontana describes; I haven’t had time to
    look. I offered @fontana a
    prop bet on this, regardless.
  • Finally, in the same
    thread, @jasonriedy mentioned
    the so-called Lisp LGPL, which I said was
    a seemed unnecessary now that
    we have LGPLv3.
• I noted
  that I wrote a blog post on OpenFOAM.
• I complained
  about the (lack of a) USA healthcare system.
• @fontana
  and I had a discussion about crossposting on identi.ca.
• I
  ack’ed that @fabsh had launched the
  oggcast, rantofabkuhn.
• The biggest news this week was
  that @kaz
  is now Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, although
  the thread discussing
  it on identica was rather short. OTOH, @fontana asked
  if @kaz
  would be required to use GNOME 3.
• The thread
  about @allisonrandal’s
  appearance on Linux Outlaws continued:
  Trending

  Разследване на Валя Ахчиева: “Правителството” на Темида – разобличено, но законът – игнориран
  • @allisonrandal claimed to
    have not said that those
    who chose strong copyleft were just as happy with weak copyleft
    relicensing.
    I found the exact place
    where she said that
    in the LO 204 ogg
    file, wherein she says at 36:15 and 37:30:

    Part of that reason is that when a developer develops code they want
    their code to be used. They may have a general philosophy that
    they want used. Most developers who contribute under a copyleft license
    &mdash they’d be happy with any copyleft license — AGPL,
    GPL, LGPL — they think — that’s my
    “set”. …

    You’re using GPL and we’re using LGPL, so we can’t use your code.
    Hmmm, we can’t do that! … this just doesn’t fit the way
    developers think! We want our code to be used — and we’re happy
    to have — if I said GPL, it’s probably true that I’m happy to have
    it under LGPL as well. It’s just too much work [without Harmony] to
    make that happen.

  • @allisonrandal,
    @fontana and I debated the differences between strong and weak
    copyleft in a subthread.
  • A
    subthread discussed who the leadership of Harmony is. I asked for a
    definitive place where I
    can find who are the decision-makers of Harmony and no one
    answered this, but @fontana
    made some
    speculations, @allisonrandal
    claims that Harmony has no leadership (I wondered but didn’t dent:
    should people really be adopting important documents from a group
    with no leadership?).
    Also, @fabsh pointed out
    that he doubted that it was without
    leaders. @fontana
    pointed out that SFLC was not previously leader of Harmony;
    @allisonrandal says she
    thought they were and yet SFLC claims they weren’t. I ended the subtread
    by asking again how Harmony
    governing works and got no response.
  • In a subthread, @allisonrandal reiterated that FSF was wrong
    to change the terms of GPL with GPLv3 (which she’d
    previously stated on the LO
    interview. I
    still believe her position
    on this ironically contradicts the plans of Harmony, which seeks
    to empower companies to change licenses unilaterally. (Why should
    companies have a right to change a license, but FSF shouldn’t?)
  • I pointed out to
    @allisonrandal that GPLv2 already specified inside the license plans
    for
    GPLv3. @allisonrandal
    said in response that FSF updating GPL wasn’t helpful to Free
    Software
    developers. She
    further claimed that FSF’s update to GPLv3 constituted Manifest
    Destiny, which I
    disputed.

  • The conversation on that sub-thread descended
    into a
    discussion of @allisonrandal’s culturally relativistic attitude toward
    Free Software,
    wherein @allisonrandal
    admitted she’s primarily a cultural relativist.
  • Finally, there
    was subthread
    discussing how one can be pro-copyleft, believe that proprietary
    software is morally wrong, but also not believe permissive licensing is
    morally wrong. I would think such is obvious and well established
    by, for example, RMS’ writings since 1984, but we nevertheless rehashed
    that old debate. In this subthread, I
    did point out that Harmony is
    biased against copyleft, and therefore is not merely an amoral
    proposition of all options, as @allisonrandal has claimed. (Oh,
    and this dent of mine in that
    thread was redented a bit.) I favorites and nearly
    redented @mlinksva’s
    contribution to the subthread.
  • @fontana linked to a
    Harmony list post
    wherein @allisonrandal
    attempts to make an 11th-hour effort to remove anti-strong-copyleft
    parts of Harmony.
• There was
  a rather pointlessly
  lengthy thread about accents, mostly my Balmur accent (or adjusted
  version thereof). That
  discussion bled over
  onto another thread that started when I left @fontana a voicemail in a
  think Balmur accent.
• @fontana
  doesn’t like it that I call Hitler a “dude”, even though I
  said evil dude.
• I was
  a guest on FLOSS Weekly on
  Wednesday. @joncruz
  mentioned he enjoyed the show.
• I mentioned
  again to @mcgrof my copyleft-by-guilt theory of OpenBSD, which I’d
  previously mentioned
  publicly,
  which @chromatic
  found amusing.
• FSF
  intern @williamtheaker is working this summer on some historical GPLv3
  data-gathering.
• @fontana
  started a thread on a Fedora list and on identi.ca about Gilligan’s
  Island copyright of the Fedora website. This was previously
  discussed
  in two threads
  about a month ago, wherein
  I coined the phrase
  “Gilligan’s Island
  copyright”. @fontana
  gave me credit on the Fedora thread for coining the phrase. I’m
  working on a more complete blog post on Gilligan’s Island copyright.
• dneary’s
  blog post made me think of an old boss.
• There
  was a discussion of my reasons for phoning @fontana.
• My
  beloved plastic $2 Pretty neat travel soap dish (tray / holder) that I
  got in 1991 is now cracked.
• @kraai
  is registered to donate bone marrow. I’m considering it.
• I’m
  continuing to work on some patches for GNU Bash.
• Some
  people apparently want
  an @bkuhn GPL enforcement action figure.