[ossig] [myoss] [Fwd: Request for Public Review - Malaysian Government Interoperability Framework for Open Source Software (MyGIFOSS) Update]

[Uwe Dippel]

Dinesh Nair wrote:

>> Sorry Dinesh, but the software I stand in for will not accept patents 
>> and, as you cited, "all derived works are also free".
> 
> i'm missing the context on the above, uwe. 
> 

Sorry, no offense intended; and neither to make you guessing.


> from slashdot, http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/08/1832255
> but worth a complete repost.
> 
[...]
> These distinctive views of ownership combine with considerations of money,
> and GPL's anti-business mindset, resulting in accusations of Communism,
> and worse. But I'll save explaining that for another article. For now I
> will simply suggest that GPL advocates should change their language a bit,
> to make themselves more easily understood by people who do not subscribe
> to their philosophy. Specifically:
> 
> "BSD code is free, but GPL code stays free."
> 
> It would be better instead to say:
> 
> "BSD code is free, but the GPL ensures all derived works are also free."

I used to be much less precise in terms, but with Microsoft embracing 
Open Source *in their way*, we must be very clear in a policy document 
on what we want. Signing a NDA, professing to never, ever, alter a 
single dot, use any idea, tell anyone what you have seen until we hit 6 
feet below ground; that is also a somewhat true 'Open Source' philosophy.

Uwe