[Adium-devl] [macsb] Re: Disk Images

[Colin Barrett]

On Nov 12, 2006, at 5:34 AM, Andreas Monitzer wrote:

> On Nov 12, 2006, at 05:56, Peter Hosey wrote:
>
>> 2. Move the license file to an on-mount display, or put it in the
>> Adium menu. I prefer the former, simply because people should be
>> able to easily view the license before using the app under its terms.
>
> Note that you don't have to agree to the GPL in order to use a
> program. When you don't agree to the license, you can still use the
> application, but you're not allowed to distribute it at all, since
> it's copyrighted and both parties (the user and the developer)
> couldn't agree on any special terms, so the copyright law applies.
> You can display the GPL (the FSF recommends it), but you should not
> have agree/disagree buttons there.
>
>  From the FSF web page (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html):
> ---------------------------------------
> If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like
> this when it starts in an interactive mode:
>
> Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
> Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
> type `show w'.  This is free software, and you are welcome
> to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
> for details.
>
> The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the
> appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
> commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and
> `show c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever
> suits your program.
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Of course, since the FSF doesn't acknowledge the existence of user
> interfaces other than the command line and emacs, this has to be
> adopted a bit.

*sigh* The GPL and the FSF make my head spin. It's like they're living  
in some completely different reality from the rest of us. I seriously  
think we should just say "fuck you" to the GPL and release Adium under  
some other license.

What have the FSF ever done for us? Zilch. IIRC, the last time we  
contacted them (which was quite a long time ago), all we got were  
thinly veiled insults at making a program for a non-free operating  
system. They had no desire to work with us at all.

-Colin