Java problem

[Les Mikesell]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:

>>> Your complaints about the GPL always boil down to the fact
>>> that the license prevents you from hijacking the code.
>> I'm not interested in hijacking anything.  I just want to be able to use
>> code that everyone has been given permission to use but not to
>> redistribute in creative, usable forms.  And since it can't be
>> distributed that way, it effectively can't be used.
>>
> Let me see if I have this right - it is ok to distribute code in
> binary without the source, and restrict how you can use it, but it
> isn't ok to distribute the code with the source and restrict how you
> can use it.

GPL doesn't restrict how you can use things, just how you can share with 
others.

> Or is it that you object sharing your code in order for
> you to be able to use the code the author has shared with the
> condition that you do so?

I object to being unable to share combinations of less restricted code 
and GPL'd code.

> It sounds like what you are objecting to
> is the author licensing the code is a way that doesn't let you be
> selfish if you want to use it in your project.

Selfishness has nothing to do with anything.  I want everyone to have 
access to the innovations that would have been possible without the GPL 
restrictions on combining works.

> If you want to use
> code that carries a GPL license in a non-GPL project, contact the
> author(s) for a license that works with what you want to do. (Oh
> wait - then you might have to pay to use the code, and that would
> cut into your profits...)

I'm not interested in selling anything.  But, as an example of my 
objection, long ago I built a combination of gnutar compiled under DOS 
with a tcp library and scsi drivers linked in so you could use local or 
remote tape drives.  The other 2 libraries were freely available in 
source, but because of the GPL restriction on gnutar I could not give 
away the combined work.  These days the OS provides those services so 
that specific example is somewhat obsolete, but the principle that 
useful combinations of freely available code are prohibited still 
stands, the most obvious one today being zfs in Linux.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com