[ On Monday, September 13, 1999 at 12:40:45 (-0400), der Mouse wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: what happened to the lm75(?) driver?
>
> Or, to put it more briefly,
> 
> 	Programmers need to be fed.
> 
> 	Programmers do not need to be fed by their programming.  They
> 	most certainly do not have any right to demand that they be fed
> 	by their programming.

Obviously.  However I'm not asking to be paid directly for my
programming, at least not in this case.  I'm only saying that if you
find my work of value then in order to use it for "free" (i.e. without
compensating me directly) you must be willing to acknowledge that I
wrote it.  If you are willing to acknowledge my work then there should
be no problem with my legally binding you to such acknowledgment.  If
you object solely on the basis that I'm forcing you to be legally bound
to acknowledge my work then then I have a problem because it's not
really you that I'm worried about -- it's the guys one step removed
along the way.  The only alternative that I can see for me is indeed the
GPL.  However I'm willing to avoid the GPL because unlike RMS I'm fairly
certain that I can maintain the freeness of my code despite its use in
proprietary products, just so long as I can indeed use a copyright
license such as the one I've proposed which I feel will provide the
strongest legal protection short of the GPL itself.  Unlike RMS I feel
that the people who use proprietary products get their just desserts
when they find they can't fix their own software.  People need to look
out for themselves and they need to learn that if they don't want to get
caught between a rock and a hard place then they have to learn to use
truly open software.  I don't think there's any need for me as a
programmer to protect them from their own bad judgement so long as I've
given them the option of choosing an open product.  I'm trying to keep
my free code free without having to prevent those who are willing to use
it in proprietary products from doing so.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>      <robohack!woods>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>