[K12OSN] Scary article from Russia (w/o love)

[Les Mikesell]

Terrell Prude' Jr. wrote:
> 
> 
> Les Mikesell wrote:
>> Terrell Prude' Jr. wrote:
>>> Conrad,
>>>
>>> "Free" doesn't refer to price when we refer to free software.  
>>> Rather, it refers to freedom.  Think RHEL here.
>>>
>>>  http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
>>
>> And there is a serious problem with this when you would like to be 
>> free to make your own choice about individual components and the GPL 
>> prevents anything with different restrictions from being included in a 
>> single work.
>>
> 
> Huh?

How do you propose that any existing technology covered by 
GPL-incompatible restrictions be combined in a single program with 
anything covered by the GPL?  It can't - and you are forced to exclude 
one or the other.  In cases covered only by copyright, there is the 
possibility of duplicating the work, but you can't do that with patents. 
  Look at it this way: How many software patents are there?  That's how 
many things can never be included in the Linux kernel unless someone 
arranges unlimited free distribution rights for each covered item.  And 
this is regardless of the reasonableness of the terms of the patent or 
your own choices about the value vs. cost.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at mikesell