davis@clocs.cs.unc.edu (Mark Davis) (02/14/89)
In article <3692@nicmad.UUCP> brown@nicmad.UUCP (Vidiot) writes: >GNU Awk has just been released to the pc binaries news group. It is public >domain. >-- > harvard-\ att--\ >Vidiot ucbvax!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!brown > rutgers-/ decvax--/ > ARPA/INTERNET: nicmad!brown%astroatc.UUCP@spool.cs.wisc.edu I hate to nit, but Stallman is trying hard to protect the status of FSF's stuff. Gnu things (like GAWK and GCC) are freely copiable but are not public domain. FSF has copyright and has some interesting restrictions about what you can do with it. For most of us, it makes it freely available, but the rules keep somebody from going into business and making money off of all of the volunteer work that has been done for FSF. The reason I am using all the net-bandwidth to make this point is that FSF must protect their copyright. If you don't protect it, then you open the door for theft and messy court battles. (I have no connection with FSF except that I use their products and hope to be able to contribute to some of them myself. Additionally, I have (casually) read their copyleft statements.) Thanks for your time (and the net-bandwidth). Thanks - Mark (davis@cs.unc.edu or uunet!mcnc!davis)
brown@nicmad.UUCP (Vidiot) (02/16/89)
In article <6711@thorin.cs.unc.edu> davis@cs.unc.edu (Mark Davis) writes: <In article <3692@nicmad.UUCP> brown@nicmad.UUCP (Vidiot) writes: <>GNU Awk has just been released to the pc binaries news group. It is public <>domain. <I hate to nit, but Stallman is trying hard to protect the status of <FSF's stuff. < <Gnu things (like GAWK and GCC) are freely copiable but are not public <domain. FSF has copyright and has some interesting restrictions about <what you can do with it. For most of us, it makes it freely available, <but the rules keep somebody from going into business and making money <off of all of the volunteer work that has been done for FSF. Oops. Sorry, bad choice of words. I should have known better and not said public domain. -- harvard-\ att--\ Vidiot ucbvax!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!brown rutgers-/ decvax--/ ARPA/INTERNET: nicmad!brown%astroatc.UUCP@spool.cs.wisc.edu