Re: [LI] Message from RMS.

[Atul Chitnis <achitnis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 5 Dec 1999, Raj Mathur wrote:

> In other words, you admit the folly of your ways :-) Great, I'm glad
> someone saw the light because of me!

Sorry, actually it was more that I had my lights put out.... ;-)

> It's never too late to GPL.  The excuses you give for not GPL'ing a
> software which is completely your product (IRIX has source from over
> 100 different companies in it) could be subject to the same adverb
> that you are using :-)

Ummm, consider that there may be other reasons. In India, GPL is not a
recognised license. I would not be able to enforce it in any way if
someone were to take my code, only change the credits and republish it as
his own. In fact prevailing Indian copyright laws would be in his favour,
stating that once I make the source code public, it is public, period.

But that was never the reason for not GPL'ing my code. The real reason is
that it is a mess, badly coded, spagetti and unmaintainable. I know that
opening it up would allow people to clean it up, but there are two issues
here:

1. How many people here program in Pascal (Kala, put your hand down!)

2. I would have to face the ridicule that is bound to surface when people
   see my code from more than 10 years ago.

I have written a lot of stuff since those days, mostly utilities, small
apps, fancy script files, etc. and have *always* made the source code
available. Not under GPL but under (what would amount to) the *BSD
license.

My real work is not in codeland, and I believe that it is as important as
code - with the clear distinction that I have never had to cross words
about the interpretation of a license that covers my advocacy and other
activities..... ;-)

Atul

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