Twenty questions about the GPL
jacobian.org
Twenty questions about the GPL
1–10 of 83 posts
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#2This would be a much more interesting article if the author had at least tried to get answers to his questions (perhaps from the GNU foundation or the Software Freedom Law Center, etc) and included that with his questions. That would have been an interesting article, and possibly useful to hackers and software entrepreneurs.
As it is, I'm surprised and disappointed that an article with so little substance has made it so high on the HN front page.
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#3[deleted]
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#4Nice list of questions...I've used GPL'd software extensively, read numerous discussions about the license, and read the GPL several times through, and am still uncertain (or at least uncomfortable) about the answer to most of these questions.
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#5Jacob brings up a point I haven't seen clearly expressed before -- the GPL's design directly leads to questions like these (now more than ever with Python/Ruby and Javascript), but the FSF not only does not provide clear or useful answers, there is no mechanism for arriving at decent answers.
The problem with the GPL is not really the evangelical copyleft (as annoying as those people can be), the problem is that it's too fucking complicated to deal with in real-world situations.
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#6[deleted]
Most of his questions deal with GPLv3 it seems.
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#7[deleted]
Well, sorry, but apparently I'm not as smart as you; even reading carefully I can't see the answer to whether a dynamic language import/require/load/whatever counts as a derivative work.
> Total FUD. If you don't like the license, don't use it.
See, that's my point exactly. I'd like to use GPL'd code, and I'd like to help my clients do the same. But since I can't get good answers to questions like these, I have to simply avoid GPL'd code like the plague. And that leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#8[deleted]
Every reference to the GPL in the article is to version 3 of the license, which does not contain the language you reference.
Care to try again?
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#9[deleted]
The text of the license is smaller than that blog post. And, yes, it contains answers to all the posted questions
The author is pointing out that the text is ambiguous. So yes, although it's shorter, it may not indeed contain all the answers. We can argue whether the poster is correct and whether there are ambiguities in the GPL, but your argument doesn't address the question.
I don't know the answers to those questions and I'd be surprised if anyone could answer all of them with certainty.
Re: Twenty questions about the GPL
#10Jacob brings up a point I haven't seen clearly expressed before -- the GPL's design directly leads to questions like these (now more than ever with Python/Ruby and Javascript), but the FSF not only does not provide clear or useful answers, there is no mechanism for arriving at decent answers . The problem with the GPL is not really the evangelical copyleft (as annoying as those people can be), the problem is that it'…
Yeah, that's really the nut of the problem, isn't it. Short of finding a lawyer qualified to speak to these issues -- which I can't afford -- my only other option is to simply avoid the GPL. Which sucks.