Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!bbn!bbn.com!cosell From: cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss Subject: Re: Why I do not support GNU Message-ID: <47006@bbn.COM> Date: 17 Oct 89 12:35:49 GMT References: <8910160520.AA01740@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> Sender: news@bbn.COM Reply-To: cosell@BBN.COM (Bernie Cosell) Distribution: gnu Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 37 In article nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu writes: }In article sja@sirius.hut.fi (Sakari Jalovaara) writes: } } We all know that some people (many people) disagree with me. Some of } them have already said so. If you are another one of these people, } please spare the readers another message to this effect. Your opinion } has already been expressed--saying it again won't help anyone. } } Does this say: "shut up if you disagree with me"? } }No. It says: "Your opinion has been expressed and noted. Reiterating }your opinion is not useful, as your opinion has already been noted." But the point of the comment is that there is no apparent symmetry: we've all heard all the opinions on the OTHER side bunches, too. Telling one side of a discussion that "I've already heard what you have to say, so you can stop saying it even as I keep saying my bit over and over" is a bit odd, no? } You can do anything with public domain code, including sell it. } Suppose an "evil software hoarder" (aka the bogey man) grabs your } program, makes proprietary modifications to it and sells it for money. } }The problem with public domain code is this: If I want my code to be }and remain freely available, I can't put it in the public domain. If }I do, someone can take my code and mix it with theirs. My code effectively }becomes theirs. This is not acceptable to me. I missed part of the reasoning there: the 'mixer' didn't take your code out of the public domain. It is still there and still freely available. Now, the *modified* version of your code [after the mixing] may or may not be available, but why do you care: *your* code is still out there. Many folk, for example, would *prefer* that after-mixing versions of their code NOT be publicly available because defects in the 'improvements' tarnish the apparent quality and utility of the original, unblemished code. /Bernie\