GNU discussion (was re:Free your phone)

Dave Crossland dave at lab6.com
Sat Jan 27 12:23:52 CET 2007


On 24/01/07, Gabriel Ambuehl <gabriel_ambuehl at buz.ch> wrote:
>
> And besides, the BSDL predates the GPLv1 by a decade.

This is simply untrue.

I have done some research on this:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?q=%22at%26t+source+license%22+BSD

"In 1989 the "Networking Tape 1" was released; this was the first time
that BSD UNIX code was available to anyone without a very expensive
proprietary license from AT&T."

"An AT&T source license in 1988 could cost as much as $100,000, making
it prohibitive for many would-be users of BSD."

> And many
> would argue (I certainly do, but obviously not the FSF) that the
> BSDL is much more free than the GPL.

The freedom to become less free is a paradox.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-copyleft.html explains why copyleft
licenses like the GPL are better than permissive free software
licenses like the revised BSD license.

-- 
Regards,
Dave




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