Xref: utzoo comp.lang.postscript:7071 gnu.misc.discuss:2136 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!clarkson!grape.ecs.clarkson.edu!nelson From: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,gnu.misc.discuss Subject: Re: Ghostscript: The bad news Message-ID: Date: 19 Dec 90 16:05:26 GMT References: <1990Dec16.104300.12930@pegasus.com> Sender: @grape.ecs.clarkson.edu Reply-To: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET) Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam NY Lines: 32 In-Reply-To: richard@pegasus.com's message of 16 Dec 90 10:43:00 GMT In article <1990Dec16.104300.12930@pegasus.com> richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) writes: In reply to this Peter said the following: The copyright that comes with Ghostscript is quite serious: Ghostscript is, in my view, a piece of potentially commercial software that I have developed, that I own, and that I choose to distibute as GNUware. Frankly, for me that took a few days to fully sink in. Peter has written Ghostscript and will allow us to use it and debug it for him. He reserves the right to turn it into a commercial product once we've helped him get it to that point. Then what do we have? A package of what used to be GNUware that we are no longer allowed to modify or perhaps even use? No. Once a package is released as GNUware, no one can stop anyone from copying it so long as they abide by the GPL. This is true even if the copyright holder releases a copy of it which is NOT under the GPL. In other words, if you don't like the job Peter is doing, you're free to distribute the "Richard Foulk" version of GhostScript, into which you incorporate anyone's patches you feel like (assuming they give you permission). If you think you can do a better job than Peter at improving GhostScript, the GPL gives you a chance to do it. -- --russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) FAX 315-268-7600 It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear -- Freeman Dyson I joined the League for Programming Freedom, and I hope you'll join too.