[TriLUG] (repost) Pretty-OT: Question for GPL knowledgeable folks

Joel James Adamson joeljamesadamson at gmail.com
Thu Jul 21 10:36:41 EDT 2011


Hi Shane et al,

All excellent points.  I'd just like to add...

"Shane O." <shaneodonnell at gmail.com> writes:

> In my experience, I've found FSF opinions on GPL licensing questions
> to be VERY conservative,

That's what the FSF is there for; if anyone is going to be conservative,
it should be them

> and many aspects of their opinions are very quickly argued or
> dismissed by less biased attorneys.

Have you ever met an attorney that didn't do that to anyone else's
opinion, in any area?  I don't consider it dishonest, it's just their
job to "quickly argue and dismiss" ;)

> But all of that is just attorney jaw-flapping at $120+ an hour...

Yes, exactly.

In my interactions with the "GPL experts" I have never encountered
someone who seemed self-interested.  I'm old enough to remember that
anyone giving advice has their own motivations, own agenda, own
worldview.  However, particularly in my correspondence with rms, I never
encountered anything that seemed self- (or FSF)-serving.  I clearly
explained *my motivations* to him and he offered advice on all the
aspects, mainly making sure I was aware of the nuances, and not
necessarily suggesting any particular route.  He was very informative.
My other interactions with the FSF (other than membership) have mainly
consisted in making sure their legal protocols were followed, which they
are entitled to.

Bradley Kuhn is not a lawyer either, but he does serve as an expert in
many legal cases, so if you have a specific legal question, he can
probably handle it well, or at least direct you to the right people who
can answer it.

Above all the people I've asked advice of are *really nice people* and
that's worth all the work you need to do to decipher their opinions,
their motivations, etc.

Joel

-- 
Joel J. Adamson
Servedio Lab -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
FSF Member #8164 -- http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=8164
http://www.unc.edu/~adamsonj

Please use my new gmail address: <joeljamesadamson at gmail.com>
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