Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!bbn.com!papaya.bbn.com!rsalz From: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: While we're flaming about copyrights... Message-ID: <2498@litchi.bbn.com> Date: 7 May 90 15:40:56 GMT References: <=X833-ggpc2@ficc.uu.net> <435:May611:29:3590@stealth.acf.nyu.edu> Organization: BBN Systems and Technology, Inc. Lines: 43 Someone writes: Obviously I'm biased towards the more comprehensive alternative that I just posted to alt.sources. Someone else writes: Obviously, but the goals of the "Really Free Software Foundation" (i.e., me) differ from yours. Look, if you want to post something to Usenet, just give the goddamn thing away. Sorry about the swearing, but this is really getting totally ridiculous. Let's get a basic grounding in reality. Can anyone prove that these assertions are wrong? +If you post something, it will be seen by many thousands of people. +It will get stored in archive sites, backup tapes, and so on -- *it will be around forever* -- long after you've given up Usenet, or died in a bomb blast. +If you don't make it easy to understand what to do, then some people will just strip off the copyright, and pass things around without it -- possibly without your name. +No matter how good you are, you will NOT be able to write code that everyone can use without some modifications. If you do not let people make changes so that they can modify a program for use at their site -- be it a single-person consulting house, a large university, or an international corporation, then just why are you posting it to the net? Some people who post are worried about their reputation being besmirched: I know of only one real occasion where this has happened, and that was over five years ago before everyone got to play Junior Barrister. Some people who post on this topic have made several claims about wanting to preserve their their reputation of giving out good, free code. Such people should get a clue -- they have no such reputation. That is a small, select, circle, and they would do well to look at the copyrights used by the people who are in that circle -- Wall, Spencer, Gwyn, Collyer, and Poskanzer for a start. I will now reject any posting that has a time-limited copyright, that does not allow modifications, or that I cannot understand. /rich $alz, moderator -- Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net. Use a domain-based address or give alternate paths, or you may lose out.