The Free Software Foundation's open letter to the UnitedLinux Board [LWN.net]

Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 13:34:00 -0400
From: "Bradley M. Kuhn" <bkuhn@fsf.org>
To: unitedlinux@sco.com, unitedlinux@conectiva.com, webmaster@unitedlinux.com, unitedlinux@suse.com, unitedlinux@turbolinux.com
Cc: lwn@lwn.net, mbenoit@virtualmgmt.com
Subject: Follow up request for terms of the NDA

[ An open letter to the UnitedLinux Board of Managers from the Free Software Foundation ]

Dear UnitedLinux Board of Managers,

On the conference call announcement that occurred on 18 September 2002, you indicated that you'd be willing to release to the Free Software community the terms that of your "closed beta" NDA, to show that your closed beta was indeed distributed in compliance with the terms of the GNU General Public License and the GNU Lesser General Public License.

As you know, distribution of any type is still distribution under copyright law, and thus requires that you properly comply with terms of GPL and LGPL. Of course, it is your prerogative to distribute only to those parties you wish to receive a copy, but you may not restrict those parties' rights under GNU GPL and LGPL.

However, since nearly all of the volunteers from the Free Software community (your fellow developers) did not receive a copy of the so-called "closed beta", we ask that in a show of good faith, you make available at least the terms of distribution you used for that product.

Even as you release your new product to the public, the past situation must be clarified. Not only does the community deserve to know, but I also believe it behooves you to put to rest and clarify the legal ambiguities that arise naturally from doing a "closed beta" of GPL'ed software.

I look forward to your prompt response, and thank you for taking my question today. I presume that you are acting in full compliance with GPL; this is just a matter of clarifing that fact for the community.

Sincerely,

Bradley M. Kuhn
Executive Director, Free Software Foundation

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The Free Software Foundation's open letter to the UnitedLinux Board

Posted Sep 19, 2002 6:12 UTC (Thu) by flying_walrus (guest, #3781) [Link]

I find myself in an interesting position, as i am normally a proponent of BSD style licenses. This situation brings home the utility of the GPL much more than the silly people who released wine under a BSD style license and then whined when people took them at their word.

Thank you, Free Software Foundation, for working to protect the freedom of this software. You have made me begin to rethink my position.

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but...

Posted Sep 19, 2002 13:06 UTC (Thu) by foobarfoobar (guest, #3819) [Link]

... I don't appreciate your calling Wine developers "silly people", nor do I think it is true to say that they have "whined" at any point.

Wine, like linux, is a complex project with a very long history, contributed to by a great number of people with a variety of different motivations. As one of them, I don't understand where you are coming from.

I am happy that you feel someone is fighting on your behalf, defending a product that I doubt you've ever personally contributed to. When you 'rethink your position' I hope you find a broader basis than your mistaken take on Wine to refer to.

Neither the GPL or X11 license is more useful than the other. They have different purposes and different philosophies behind them. Neither captures the exact intent of every developer that contributes to projects licensed under them.

In this case, there is no proven violation of the GPL as yet. Lets wait and see what happens.