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I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

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Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#461

Post by philwelch »

Macha wrote: post #451
mcgrath_sh wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I batch cook and freeze meals, and some of them look similar (sauce and chicken vs sauce and pork) and I want to eat the older stuff first. There are also some products that are recommended to be disposed of within X days of opening, which fall well before their best by date.

When I batch cook meals, I then eat them over the next few days until either it's done or it's been too long for that meal. Then I batch cook something else. I usually don't have multiple batches on the go.

So you just eat the same meal over and over again until you run out?

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#462

Post by pdfernhout »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #389
giancarlostoro wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > Standard mail forwarding lasts 12 months. You can pay to extend mail forwarding for 6, 12, or 18 more months (18 months is the maximum). That's kind of awkward when you consider people will find that address for source code where that license file just wont be updated for decades to come, if at all.

We need DNS, but for mail addresses.

Maybe DNS for mail addresses is like a Post Office Box number? :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_office_box

With 20/20 hindsight, if the FSF had used a P.O. Box number in the license, the license addresses would always be correct even if the FSF office changed addressed or (as now) was no longer maintained.

Of course, the cost of a P.O. box over 40 years would have added up to thousands of dollars and that is less money for FSF advocacy. And time spent going to the post office to check the box would also have taken away from advocacy time.

Another physical mail DNS-like idea is mail forwarding -- but it typically has time limits at the post office although not for private mail forwarders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_forwarding "Private mail forwarding services are also offered by private forwarding companies, who often offer features like the ability to see your mail online via a virtual mailbox. Virtual mailboxes usually have options to get your mail scanned, discard junk mail and forward mail to your current address."

Although strictly speaking, these forwarding services are not quite like DNS (even if they do get at the idea of indirection). A true mail DNS would be more like a service you mail a post card to with a person's or organization's name and which mails a post card back to you which tells you what address to currently write to in order to reach that person or organization. (At least, if you write to that received address during some time-to-live window of validity of the address.) And I guess Encrypted DNS would be like you and the service using more expensive security envelopes instead of post cards? :-)

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#463

Post by dredmorbius »

hughw wrote: post #452
taftster wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author mentioned this exact problem. Quoting: > There was a problem that I noticed right away, though: this text was from the GPL v3, not the GPL v2. In my original request I had never mentioned the GPL version I was asking about. >The original license notice makes no mention of GPL version either. Should the fact that the license notice contained an address have been enough metadata or a clue, that I was actuall…

A Sid Caesar skit showed doughboys celebrating and one shouted "World War 1 is over!"... when they made GPLv2 maybe they didn't anticipate creating future versions (although yeah, if you're already on v2 you should foresee that).

There is a GPL v.1, and it may have been so numbered at initial publication:

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-1.0.html>

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#464

Post by Misdicorl »

tshaddox wrote: post #402
Misdicorl wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the goal should be to ensure that anyone who wants to do a thing can, with as few third party requirements as possible. This is a good starting point, but if you have no barriers then you get abuse problems which is why email is terrible. I remember being horrified in the 90s about attempts to charge 1 cent per email. Now I long for a world where that actually happened.

Ironically, the amount of effort I expend dealing with spam from the postal service is much larger than the amount of effort I expend dealing with email.

And now imagine how easy dealing with email spam would be if the marginal fiscal cost was not 0 like physical spam. All the technology and tools available and less than 1% of the viable spam surface area

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#466

Post by [deleted] »

sph wrote: post #102
gwd wrote: post #14

> Writing the address on the envelope was awkward, as I haven’t used a pen in several years; it took a few attempts and some wasted envelopes... Wow -- I mean, sure, I don't use a pen that often, but I'm sure I hand-write something at least once a month...

My hand writing got rusty and awkward until I read that writing something by hand is shown to strengthen one's memory and recollection. It definitely seems to be the case for me and has made me much more organised. Now I journal on a paper notebook, take daily notes on a whiteboard and I'm rediscovering index cards for long term storage, but I wish real life had a search function. If I had an automated scanning + OCR…

[deleted]

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#467

Post by philwelch »

Alex-Programs wrote: post #248
01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even a whiteboard marker? I'm in the US so I use permanent marker to write my lawyers phone number on my arm before protests

As a Brit, the concept of "My lawyer" is slightly unfamiliar. The average Brit doesn't "have a lawyer"; they would only find a lawyer if they had a specific need, eg being accused of a crime or wanting to write a contract etc. And yet as far as I can tell, most middle class Americans seem to refer to "their lawyer". Do you pay a monthly fee? Are they a criminal defence lawyer, or something broader? How often do you t…

It's not normal for Americans to just have a lawyer ahead of time. But then again it's also not normal for most Americans to routinely get themselves arrested at "protests". So if you're going to engage in activities that are likely to get you into legal trouble, you might find yourself a criminal defense attorney ahead of time. In particular, organized "protests" often have legal assistance from sympathetic lawyers.

It is possible to have an attorney on retainer though, either as a consequence of having hired that attorney in the past or as part of a subscription service.

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#468

Post by ngharo »

davisr wrote: post #273

This is funny because I was the operations assistant (office secretary) at the time we received this letter, and I remember it because of the distinct postage.

I met a web developer working for the FSF at a Boston pub one night while in town for a Red Hat conference. After many drinks, he walked us down fifth street to the FSF office building. I wasn’t sure what to expect but when we got there, he typed in some numbers on the door entry system, and what came out was RMS singing the free software song lol. It was a wonderful treat for a young Linux nerd on a hazy adventure in the early morning

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#469

Post by philwelch »

rs186 wrote: post #465

Looks like no other comment dwells on the fact that FSF was based in Boston. I heard that Boston was a small hub for tech companies back in the 90s (which is is much less true these days), which might explain this.

FSF was founded by Richard Stallman, who was a Harvard student and worked at the MIT AI Lab.

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#470

Post by grepfru_it »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #430
1oooqooq wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

since this is hacker news... i once had some trouble changing mail address from one supplier (they would send the materials to the new address, but insisted on sending billing/tax info to the old one) so i did the mail forward process some three times + their extensions (i recall it was 6 + 3mo or so)... it got me close to 3 yrs of reliable mail forward from the great folks at usps until i could get thru the supplier…

> the only issue "redoing" the request is that people at the old address can block it, so be sure to talk to them first. That's so strange, especially when you consider that for legal purposes, if you receive mail at someone's home, you are now a "resident" and it is harder for police to kick you out. Why would anyone willingly want your mail to come to your address.

Simply receiving mail does not make you a resident. You must establish residency and that is being allowed access to the home, the understanding that you are leaving belongings behind with the ability to access them later, how long you have stayed, and maintaining things like utility bills. A lease is a contract that clearly establishes the guidelines between two willing parties. Absent that, the definition of residency is typically delineated in your state landlord-tenant laws.

Disclaimer: in the USA

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