At 03:50 AM 2/16/2002, Patrik Stridvall wrote:
Note that when Wine fully works (close to 100% of all Windows applications run) it will not matter what license we have, there will be no money in anything except support anyway and the LGPL will not hurt that.
WINE is not likely to work more than 90% ever, due to the facts that Windows is a moving target and that Microsoft is likely to patent defensively.
It is the way there that worries me. Note that we can always choose LGPL later, but after we have choosen it we can't go back.
This is a concern.
Their place, and purpose, has been stated by Stallman. (Not in the licenses themselves, which are designed to be deceptive, but in Stallman's words in his more candid moments.) It is to turn publicly available software into a weapon in his lifelong, personal vendetta. Again, he has stated this explicitly himself, and it is also well documented by third parties such as Levy.
Please, now you are fear mongering again.
No, I am stating historical fact.
I care not whether I support Stallman or not. I care ONLY about what is good for Wine.
Ethics, consumer choice, and the future of programming as a profession all matter as well. It is not ethical to focus only on the interests of one project.
The GPL/LGPL works in ways that are almost the dual to fair use. Very simplified: It uses copyright to extend fair use.
The opposite is true. It attempts to deny fair use by programmers. And GPL V3 will attempt to deny fair use by ASPs.
--Brett Glass