Re: Questions

[jg pa dec com (Jim Gettys)]

For the record: I have many fewer issues with the LGPL than the GPL.

My problem with the GPL is that it often may, to use your words, result 
in the "tail wagging the dog".  If I (want to) use a routine that is under 
the GPL in a program otherwise not under the GPL, even though I'd be 
perfectly happy to make available any/all changes to that routine or any 
GPL'ed code I use, the entire work, which may be much larger than the 
code that would be used, becomes covered by the GPL.

Sure looks like an "infection" to me.  I did quote the word, so don't
give me too hard a time.  If you take it harshly, that is your problem,
not mine.

This often has two side effects:
	1) rewriting of code that would other wise be able to be shared,
	even in open/free projects
	2) Since the code often can't be used, it means that people may have no 
	incentive to improve or enhance it.
It is these side effects, intended or not, that make me personally so
uncomfortable with the GPL, and these side effects come up with dismaying
frequency, and frequently inhibit progress.

But I think that if we want to have a longer discussion of open vs.
free software, GPL vs. LGPL, incentivization of socially desirable behavior,
it is time to take it to a different forum than these.
                               - Jim

--
Jim Gettys
Cambridge Research Laboratory
Compaq Computer Corporation
jg pa dec com