[darcs-users] Re: [OT] Larry McVoy on the Bitkeeper licence

[Aaron Denney]

On 2005-02-15, Erik Bågfors <zindar at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:31:27 -0500, David Roundy
><droundy at abridgegame.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 12:06:41AM +0100, Juliusz Chroboczek wrote:
>> > > It's possible that we'll be changing the BK license [...]
>> > > What we would like to do is change the language to say that if you
>> > > use BK you are agreeing that you won't work on another SCM for 1
>> > > year after you stop using BK. -- Larry McVoy, 13 February 2005
>> 
>> What I wonder about is whether submitting bug reports on darcs would count
>> as "working on another SCM"...
>
> I don't think so..  What he looks most affraid of is someone
> copying/reverse enginering BK.

That's what he says he's afraid of.  A bit of thought shows that can't
possibly be the case.  If he just wanted to forbid reverse-engineering,
that'd be simple, and he'd have the license say "no reverse engineering".
No license can forbid copying of features.  Larry McVoy is not an idiot
and realizes both of these points.  So he has some other reason.

-- 
Aaron Denney
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