Re: Java problem

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:

Your complaints about the GPL always boil down to the fact
that the license prevents you from hijacking the code.
I'm not interested in hijacking anything. I just want to be able to use
code that everyone has been given permission to use but not to
redistribute in creative, usable forms. And since it can't be
distributed that way, it effectively can't be used.

Let me see if I have this right - it is ok to distribute code in
binary without the source, and restrict how you can use it, but it
isn't ok to distribute the code with the source and restrict how you
can use it.

GPL doesn't restrict how you can use things, just how you can share with others.

Or is it that you object sharing your code in order for
you to be able to use the code the author has shared with the
condition that you do so?

I object to being unable to share combinations of less restricted code and GPL'd code.

It sounds like what you are objecting to
is the author licensing the code is a way that doesn't let you be
selfish if you want to use it in your project.

Selfishness has nothing to do with anything. I want everyone to have access to the innovations that would have been possible without the GPL restrictions on combining works.

If you want to use
code that carries a GPL license in a non-GPL project, contact the
author(s) for a license that works with what you want to do. (Oh
wait - then you might have to pay to use the code, and that would
cut into your profits...)

I'm not interested in selling anything. But, as an example of my objection, long ago I built a combination of gnutar compiled under DOS with a tcp library and scsi drivers linked in so you could use local or remote tape drives. The other 2 libraries were freely available in source, but because of the GPL restriction on gnutar I could not give away the combined work. These days the OS provides those services so that specific example is somewhat obsolete, but the principle that useful combinations of freely available code are prohibited still stands, the most obvious one today being zfs in Linux.

--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx

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