NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/programm/20791

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-06 | 1.6 KB

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Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!mintaka.lcs.mit.edu!ai-lab!zurich.ai.mit.edu!markf
From: [e-mail] (Mark Friedman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools,comp.windows.ms.programmer
Subject: Re: Stallman and friends
Date: 6 Jan 93 09:46:08
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
NNTP-Posting-Host: montreux.ai.mit.edu
In-reply-to: [e-mail]'s message of Wed, 6 Jan 1993 06:38:42 GMT

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Ed Ipser) writes:

** I don't believe that it is fair or accurate to describe Stallman as
** a mere kook. If you strip away the leftist rhetoric and the "tax
** them to subsidize us" drivel, you will find a very sound business
** idea. In essence, what Stallman et alia are doing is charging
** computer manufactureres for the privalege of having GNU software on
** their platforms which they then distribute for "free".

I don't think that you can really characterize the FSF idea this way.
The concept of free source code availablility (i.e. "the leftist
rhetoric") is central to the GNU manifesto. I don't see how you can
view the copyleft requirements as charging computer manufacturers
unless you interpret giving away source code as a "charge".

-Mark
--

Mark Friedman
42 Wyatt St.
Somerville, Ma. 02143

[e-mail]