Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!bu-cs!ncsuvx!ecemwl!jnh From: jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Joseph N. Hall) Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss Subject: Re: Why I do not support GNU Message-ID: <4245@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> Date: 19 Oct 89 20:31:23 GMT References: <3346@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> <211300006@hollin> Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu Reply-To: jnh@ecemwl.UUCP (Joseph N. Hall) Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 37 In article rich@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us writes: >In article <211300006@hollin> ds@hollin.prime.com writes: > > By actively using your copyright protection, you can help change > the current situation in which companies waste valuable programming > time and energy developing the same software (with local variants) > in parallel. > >Sometimes also called "competition". I think that the FSF's "copyleft" and attitude toward copyright protection is just as morally bankrupt as the systems it purports to overthrow. The use of "free" software (working and beautifully-written, too) as a kind of intellectual and economic cudgel to be used to smite those whose viewpoints do not coincide with your own is a dismal and pathetic gesture, not a noble one. It is not the behavior of people with clear hearts. It reminds me of the governments of countries whose faithful party members are rewarded with amenities denied to the masses. If the FSF believed in "free software" they would express it by contributing software to the public domain, or by contributing software with a simple copyright (no commercial use, no unauthorized modification, or something like that), and would encourage others to do the same with their example. Instead we are subjected to the same kind of atmospheric polemics that are normally uttered by failing governments and the Lyndon LaRouches of the world. I want to write free software, I want others to use it and enhance it, and I want a better, more productive world. But I don't want a world with rationalized, enforced "freedom." If you know what I mean. v v sssss|| joseph hall || 4116 Brewster Drive v v s s || jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Internet) || Raleigh, NC 27606 v sss || SP Software/CAD Tool Developer, Mac Hacker and Keyboardist -----------|| Disclaimer: NCSU may not share my views, but is welcome to.