
Bruce Perens: A Big Change for Open Source - soundsop
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3775446
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wmf
IMO this is only a big change for vultures who would ignore licenses (of which
there seem to be very few). Most people were already treating open source
licenses as if they were enforceable, so nothing has changed for them.

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jwilliams
> Most people were already treating open source licenses as if they were
> enforceable, so nothing has changed for them.

If they're aware of it. There are lots of companies out there using GPL in
their code not realising what the implications are.

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wmf
_There are lots of companies out there using GPL in their code not realising
what the implications are._

True, although this case won't change their behavior either.

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pfedor
"I've found three ways to combine any proprietary work with GPL and other Free
Software, without a need to give away any source code, even when the Free part
is under the new and most rigorous GPL3 license."

What on Earth is he talking about? I this was true, wouldn't it be completely
subverting all the copyleft licenses? This is dropped completely as a side-
thought, but isn't it rather disquieting and completely against everything
else he stands for in this article? Have I misunderstood something?

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jerf
I don't know what these "three ways" are, but the GPL in general will not
cross a process boundary. As long as you talk to it cross-process, you're safe
from the point of view of combining code. You're even "safer" if you're
talking across servers. (Scare quoted because you're basically 100% safe
either way.) Other clauses may need to be respected as well but they tend not
to be onerous.

Obviously, with sufficient effort, you can do anything across a process
boundary, it's just inconvenient, and you have to at least share all the
changes you made on the GPL side.

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urlwolf
Hmm, very interesting. It sounds like a miniature remake of the SCO vs. Linux
case.

The last bit, that the defendant needs to spend millions to refute an attack,
is actually scary. Hadn't he had free layers, he'd be in deep trouble by now
even after winning the case. All that, by giving away your work under a free
license!

