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.
- @fontana rather
- 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:- @allisonrandal claimed to
have not said thatthose
.
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.
… this just doesn’t fit the way
Hmmm, we can’t do that!
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 GPLwasn’t helpful to Free
. She
Software
developers
further claimed that FSF’s update to GPLv3 constitutedManifest
, which I
Destiny
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.
- @allisonrandal claimed to
- 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
saidevil 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.
