lynx-dev Licensing Lynx

[E. Webb]

990928 Brett Glass wrote:
>> 990928 Klaus Weide wrote:
>> Tell us more about your "new program for blind users"
>> for which "Lynx is currently the best available code".
> We seek to eliminate the many problems which blind users have
> in using Lynx to browse the Web. Because of the way Lynx displays data
> and redraws the screen, it is not optimal for the blind user.

i don't remember any blind user of Lynx -- many have sent messages
to lynx-dev during the past 3 years -- saying any such thing.
to be convincing, you need to give more details of this.

>> Tell us about your company (the "we" in your messages), financing,
>> release schedule, how you are going to distribute and market it.
> We're a (so far) loosely knit group of hackers in Laramie, Wyoming
> who would like to help (and employ!) a blind friend and possibly others
> who are blind or visually impaired. The group overlaps with two others
> doing different open source-basd projects.

if you want to be taken seriously here, you need to answer properly
all 5 of KW's questions; in fact, you've answered none of them.

>> Yeah, I'm sure foundations and stuff will go for your approach.
> Actually, the organizations we've approached about this like the idea.
> Their charter is to help the disabled by equipping them
> with necessary technology, and while they're currently buying products
> such as the "Jaws" screen reader for Windows, they don't find them
> to be a good solution for browsing. They'd gladly go with something better
> and we'd like to supply it if we can do it without starving.

you don't say whether the organisations you've approached are commercial
or non-profit, but it sounds from your description as if the latter,
in which case you should have no problem:
they should be happy to pay you for your labor at normal market rates
in return for a blind-improved version of Lynx
which they could then distribute free to blind Internet users;
neither you nor the organisation would have any commercial reason
to keep the source code a secret & indeed the organisation would benefit
from open source, which might be further improved by others without charge,
not least via this mailing-list.

it sounds to me as if you & your fellow hackers have little experience
in the real world of commercial enterprise or the equally real world
of volunteer co-operative effort -- which characterises lynx-dev -- ,
in which case it is impolite of you to take up so much of our unpaid time
with your high-school schemes & fantasies. 

if you simply want to contribute to improving Lynx as a volunteer,
you are welcome to remain subscribed & offer patches for consideration.
that's what the rest of us have been doing,
in some cases for a number of years.

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