[Savannah-register-public] Re: [task #9791] Submission of ForgePlucker

[Eric S. Raymond]

Nicodemo Alvaro <address@hidden>:
> While Open Source, as defined by its founders, means something pretty close
> to Free Software, it's frequently misunderstood.

Er. I *am* one of the founders.  You didn't have to tell mee that. :-)

> Would you be willing to speak about free software on Savannah and not open
> source?

What is your standard for this?  I don't believe I use either term in the
project materials.  Let me check...I just grepped, and I don't.  What would
I need to do to satisfy this requirement?
 
> 2) In order to release your project properly and unambiguously under the
> Modified BSD License, please place copyright notices and
> permission-to-copy statements at the beginning of every copyrightable file,
> usually any file more than 10 lines long.

You would be correct if I were applying GPL; the legal theory under
which it was constructed (propagation via a copyright hook) makes
attaching an instance to every item of copyrighted material prudent.
This is not the case with BSD or other licenses which depend on a
different way of satisfying the meeting-of-minds test, and for them that
practice is overkill.

To protect my code, I deem it sufficient to have a COPYING file which
is included by reference.  I know what the GPL FAQ says, but you should
not inappropriately generalize that advice to other licenses.
-- 
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>