[darcs-users] Re: this is not licence advocacy

[Max Battcher]

zooko at zooko.com wrote:
> Suppose that someone wished to create a program using darcs and also using code
> under the CPL or EPL licences.  Suppose that this program were released under a
> Free Software license, and suppose that the components of the program which
> were derived from darcs were under the GPL.  Is it your intention to forbid 
> this person to distribute such a program to others?

I still assume that the consequences of the copyleft in the GPL was well 
assumed (and wanted) at the time the GPL was chosen for this.  Using 
code from darcs' source should require the user to in turn release 
his/her code as GPL.  That is what the GPL is for.

If that was not why the GPL was chosen, feel free to change it.

Not to mention the fact that right now I can't figure out how in the 
world you might include Haskell source code in a Java SWT project...  Is 
there a Haskell to JVM compiler?

 > If it *is* your intention to forbid this hypothetical person from 
distributing
 > the resulting program, then you should continue to distribute darcs 
under the
 > GPL.  (In fact, perhaps you should remove the "any later version" 
clause -- as
 > the Free Software Foundation might someday write a new version of the 
GPL which
 > is compatible with the CPL.)

This sounds really stupid.  The FSF has intentionally written the GPL 
for copyleft.  (Which is why the GPL is often referred to as the 
"manifesto that thought it was a license".)  They are not in some weird 
later version going to remove the copyleft.

-- 
--Max Battcher--
http://www.worldmaker.net/
The WorldMaker.Network: Support Open/Free Mythoi.  Read the manifesto @ 
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