New Essay - "FOSS Licences Wars"

[Shlomi Fish]

On Friday 21 August 2009 22:07:17 Steve Litt wrote:
> On Friday 21 August 2009 12:58:13 Shlomi Fish wrote:
> > Hi all!
> >
> > I have published a new essay about free software licences:
> >
> > http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/open-source/foss-licences-
> >wa rs/
> >
> > Any comments will be welcome.
>
> Excellent essay! 

Thanks!

> I like the way you immediately revealed your predjudice
> (pro- MIT) so as to get that out of the way. 

:-)

> I disagree with some of your
> conclusions, but obviously your facts are spot on.
>

Thanks. I would be happy to hear any arguments you have against my 
conclusions. Maybe I'll change my opinions.

> I especially like this:
>
> 3. Write a GPLed server for solving Freecell that the graphical game would
> communicate with using TCP/IP or a different IPC mechanism.
>
> That's an excellent encapsulation method not only for variables, but for
> licenses too.
>

Yes. It's not always feasible to do that. For example, you cannot do it with 
the strong-copyleft Berkeley DB or the formerly GPLed Qt, without really 
killing performance *and* going through a lot of trouble. But it is often an 
option, as is the case for a Freecell solver.

BTW, I do actually have some aspirations of creating a web-service for fc-
solve in order to provide hints for 
http://cards.wikia.com/wiki/World_of_Solitaire or a similar online Solitaire 
game. So it seems some of the hypothetical anti-GPL measures are actually 
otherwise useful technologically.

Best regards,

	Shlomi Fish

> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> Recession Relief Package
> http://www.recession-relief.US
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt
>
>
>
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-- 
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Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/ways_to_do_it.html

God gave us two eyes and ten fingers so we will type five times as much as we
read.