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From: spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: Re: copyleft
Message-ID: <6865@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: 1 Jun 89 17:41:34 GMT
References: <32085@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Sender: news@cs.purdue.EDU
Reply-To: spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Lines: 56

In article <32085@bu-cs.BU.EDU> gjc@bu-cs.BU.EDU (George J. Carrette) writes:
>The Bellcore, AT&T, IBM, and DEC people you are talking to are just
>trying to scare you into not supporting free software.

Nonsense.  First, the people I am working with don't care one way or
the other --  some of them might even be interested in GNU software if
it wasn't for the terms of the copyleft.  The lawyers are just being
very conservative.  To their way of thinking (note that I'm not
expressing my own opinion here), the GNU project is being directed by
fanatics who MIGHT file a lawsuit over potential copyright violation
even if there was clearly no violation.  The simply want to avoid the
potential risk, especially of a politically-motivated harassment lawsuit.

Second, and this is something most people don't think about, GNU
software is not "free".  There is no money involved in getting it, but
it is proprietary software as long as there are restrictions placed on
its use and redistribution.  Calling it "Free" is an interesting use
of the language.

>How is it that other companies are using the software, e.g. INTEL?

Their lawyers may have told them not to sweat possible copyright
cases, or else they aren't using it in an arena where it makes a
difference (ie, software development labs), or (most probably) the
corporate legal staff doesn't know about it being used.

>Also, since GCC is distributed by DECUS I cannot see how DEC people
>could avoid coming into contact with it.

Lots of DEC people may come into contact with it.  The key is the
folks in R&D that those of us in university environments have to deal with.

>The "contamination" argument is absurd, since there are not "trade-secret"
>claims being made on GCC. Other than direct copying of code, which is
>rather easy to control in a commercial environment, there is really
>little danger to AT&T etc other than the danger of supporting the idea
>of free software.

I've served as an expert witness in copyright infringement cases; you
are mistaken.  As noted above, the lawyers are also worried about
harassment lawsuits.  Considering the actions taken with the Apple
boycott and some of the things said here and in other forums by people
associated with the FSF, perhaps that fear is somewhat justified.

>Fact: When you call the C++ people at ATT about the latest version they
>      will suggest you get GCC++ for the time being.

Depends on which people you call.



-- 
Gene Spafford
NSF/Purdue/U of Florida  Software Engineering Research Center,
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet:  spaf@cs.purdue.edu	uucp:	...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spaf