Very ill-thought-out position

Posted Sep 25, 2006 21:14 UTC (Mon) by k8to (guest, #15413)
In reply to: Very ill-thought-out position by neilbrown
Parent article: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

We had hoped that the poll results and position paper would start discussion of the relative merits of the GPLv3 draft in the context of the Linux Kernel, not that it would cause flames and claims of FUD. A naive hope maybe.

You would of course have received such regardless, but I think the field was sown with salt to start. Linus was quoted or claimed by various reports with arguments (unsubstantiated) that the GPLv3 would require developers to hand out their encryption keys and other nonsense. The GNU folks sent out a series of videos and watchables of taking questions and making very clear rationales for the changes being placed in the new license, their (initial) case was essentially made. Then this position paper was published, with some parts quite clear, but some arguments not fully made, and others totally nuts ("the new GPL is political").

The onus is on the dissenters at this point to clearly support their view that the specific new provisions are either a) impractical or b) immoral by clear arguments, not just claims.

I think that this case can be made, and I think that these dissenters have the knowledge to make them, but this article fell short of the mark, and so you are seeing a higher level of ire than you might have.