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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)

#531

Post by INTPenis »

Funny how the later generations of IT people often have poor penmanship.

I'm old enough to remember penmanship in school, but I was into computers from a young age so my penmanship ended up just as bad as author.

I did improve it a lot by getting a penpal through reddit. We communicated for a year and change, and during this time I went through the process of learning to be patient and write my letters slowly so they were legible.

It hurt my hand a lot to write a whole letter and I felt like I had said about as much as I have in this comment, but with time I became faster and faster.

Now probably 10 years later I still take a greater care when I write, ensuring each letter is legible.

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

#533

Post by 2mlWQbCK »

therealpygon wrote: post #142
diggan wrote: post #4

> The first thing that came to attention, the paper that the text was printed on wasn’t an A4, it was smaller and not a size I was familiar with. I measured it and found that it’s a US letter size paper at about 21.5cm x 27.9cm. I completely forgot that the US, Canada, and a few other countries don’t follow the standard international paper sizes, even though I had written about it earlier. I guess I shouldn't be surp…

> Are US letter sizes what people use instead of A4 in a workplace for documents and such (seems confusing if so) Yes, it is just our standard like A4 is yours. When you pull a paper out of the pack it is A4 when we pull it out it is ANSI A, commonly known a US Letter size. Instead of 8.27”x11.69”, we use 8.5”x11”. We also commonly use US Legal size, which is 8.5”x14”. Slightly longer and can fit in the same envelope…

I don't think I ever had a A4 printer that could not also print Letter. It is almost certainly the exact same models that they also sell in the US, but with just some bit flipped in the firmware to change the default paper size.

My current printer, like most printers I believe, can be configured to print custom sizes. The maximum is something like 9 or 9.5 inches wide IIRC, and the length can be set much longer.

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

#534

Post by swores »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #305
cjs_ac wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one thing to know that the US, Canada and the Philippines don't use the same paper sizes as the other 190 countries in the world; it's quite another to be given a physical example for the first time in your life.

You missed at least one other country that uses “US” paper sizes.

Thanks for such an enlightening comment in which you were too lazy to write a 13th word naming the country you were thinking of.

For anyone else curious as I was: Mexico is the 4th country, and I don't believe there are any others (but I could be wrong).

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

#535

Post by immibis »

pabs3 wrote: post #479
bluGill wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is GPL2 - there is no requirement that you be able to install/use/hack the software, only that you get the same source.

That is incorrect, the GPLv2 requires that you be able to modify the code, build it, reinstall the binary and run the modified binary. https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/mar/25/install-gplv2/ https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/jul/23/tivoization-and-t... https://events19.linuxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017...

This relies on a court's interpretation. GPLv3 made it explicit that the user has to be provided with everything they need to install modified software. GPLv2 just says "scripts used to control installation" which can be easily interpreted to exclude private signing keys. And the LGPLv2 says when an executable statically links to the library the user must be able to produce a modified executable - nothing at all about being able to install that executable.

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

#536

Post by mattl »

Sesse__ wrote: post #514
mattl wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work at the FSF and one of my jobs was replying to these letters. They would be so infrequent by 2008 that I think I handled less than 10 in my time there. I sent way more copies of books to prisoners who requested them, gave more tours of the office, etc. I also did some other stuff when I worked there but if you were to look at the FSF website today you might think I’m still there as pages often have the…

Debian also has a packaging lint rule telling people to update the FSF postal address. So much energy must be wasted in this. :-)

What’s the alternative?

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

#538

Post by andix »

gitroom wrote: post #537

man, seeing folks still dealing with mailing letters for code gets me every time - crazy how much the basics trip people up after a few years online. you think well ever really get rid of physical addresses or is this just another forever headache?

Why should we get rid of physical addresses? It's not really relevant for letters anymore, but people still need to go to places. Deliveries of goods are a bigger thing than ever before.

I can imagine that in the future a company doesn't need to have a physical address to be registered. But we already have that too, PO boxes and addresses where you can register your company without having an office here.

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

#539

Post by mega_dean »

immibis wrote: post #367
ta8903 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like the classic argument about IRC vs Discord. IRC is more convoluted to use, the clients are subpar, you need to set up a BNC to receive messages when offline, but Discord requires you to give up your phone number. Some people find IRC less accessible, but I find having a phone number that I'm willing to give to a third party is a much more difficult requirement.

Don't forget the next part: whenever you point out that Discord requires you to give them your phone number, hundreds of Agent Smiths appear in the replies to say that actually you don't. Who are we to believe - the repliers, or our own lying eyes? (The Agent Smith effect is something conspiracy theorists made up to explain why every time they show off their conspiracy theory in public, every single person around the…

> Who are we to believe - the repliers, or our own lying eyes?

Believe the repliers: I created an account in May 2024 and I have not added a phone number. Here's a screenshot from my settings: https://imgur.com/a/Q7kJpDv

But also, your eyes aren't lying to you: some servers require accounts to have confirmed phone number in order to join. So there is probably a lot of people who have had the experience of creating a Discord account, trying to join a server / accept an invite, and immediately seeing a "you must provide a phone number" prompt.

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

#540

Post by adastra22 »

foxglacier wrote: post #492
ndiddy wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some companies still do this mainly to make the GPL request process more annoying so fewer people do it. If you have to mail a letter with a check to cover shipping/handling and wait for the company to send you a CD-R with the code on it, fewer people will look at the code compared to if the company just put it on Github or something.

I offer GPL source via physical address because I don't want to distribute it with the software and I think the GPL said you have to do it that way. I also provide an email address for convenience but without it being the official way so I don't really have to respond to those. In 10 years, I've had zero requests either way.

Why do you distribute under GPL if you don’t want to distribute the source?
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