nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (06/08/89)
Here's a new idea, or at least new to the current discussion. What do people think of a copyright couched as below? It's terse and every word has meaning. Please mail, don't post. I will summarize to gnu.copyright (or gnu.copyleft or whatever) when it is created. "I wrote this software, and you must acknowledge that. You can do anything you want with it, but if you distribute derivations, you must ensure that everyone knows how to get a copy of the same thing you got." This copyright deals with some people's objection to "prior restraint". That is, it does not require people to give up rights to their software. This copyright deals with my objection to public domain software. That is, it does not allow people to hoard *my* code, only hoard theirs. Obviously, this copyright doesn't address rms's objection to software hoarding. Like rms, I think that software hoarding is bad. Unlike rms, I am willing to participate in this software hoarding, but only to a limited extent. -- --russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) I'm a right-to-lifer -- everyone has a right to earn a living sufficient to feed himself and his family.