In reply to Comment 135 (Ferry): > I would do it for something that the world seems to be running out of:
> politeness, courtesy, education.
No one has yet explained why would be unpolite to publicly make people notice that a software infridges upon the GPL, specially when it was publicly claimed that such a software didn't infridge upon it.
> We all are humans and exposed to make errors.
Yes, everyone knows it, thus I can't understand the big fuss about it? I mean, someone made a mistake, someone else made him notice it. We all understand people can make mistakes, so what's the problem?
> What if the person who posted a GPL'ed prog simply forgot about it?
Yes, what if? I don't get where are you getting at.
> Are we REALLY sure that he did it intentionally?
And why would it matter anyway?
> Should be him crucified in a public forum for a small mistake?
I haven't seen anyone crucified here. Unless you want to imply that making people notice their mistakes publicly is equivalent to crucifying them, that is.
> First write to him,
Why? Why when he himself stated publicly that the GPL was not being violated? The discussion was public in the first place, why should someone bring it to a private channel if he has no special interest in doing so?
> and if he persist in the error -and then it's not an error, but intentional-,
> then make it public and/or report it to the copyright holder.
The intentionality of the act has no influence on the act itself. Whether or not it was intentional, the mistake needs to be corrected.
> Of course, it's a different question if the REAL reasons to bring the issue to
> a public forum is not to warn about a GPL misuse, but to discredit the person
> who did it.
The reason for doing it, in this case, was an entirely different one. I won't repeat it again, please do your homework and check your facts.
> Some anonymous poster stated something that was not true, or at least
> inaccurated, regarding UBoot GPL license and its non-inclusion on CVS tree,
Yes, so what? He made no accusation of GPL infridgment, he simply stated his dislike for a certain situation.
> and HJF already explained the reason for this.
Yes, but you're forgettig another message. Another person said there was GPL violation going on, and HJF replied, condescendigly, that there was NO asuch a violation. But fact is, there was.
> To say that your whole stance torwads the GPL is questionable, to say the
> least is, to say the least, questionable :¬)
You are mixing issues here. When I say their whole stance torwards the GPL is questionable I talk about the fact they don't release sources together with binaries. Yes, that's GPL-compliant, but then it's the most uncollaborative way to deal with GPL software, and it's also the hardest one. So one, as I've already said, is left to wonder why do they go for the hardest way, when things could be much easier.
> The GNU GP License is clear on what and what not can be done. If you or anyone
> have any doubt about it, you can ask about it either the person who is
> supossedly breaking the GPL (he could give unexpected explanations, like the
> one HJF gave), or the GNU authorities themselves at gnu@gnu.org. What I do not
> find fair is to expose the question in a public forum without having tried
> the other possibilities before.
Questions are questions, I can't see why asking them can be considered "unfair" at all. If you've done nothing wrong, or have nothing to hide, you should have no problems answering to them, right?
And it's not like someone started a thread exactly to talk about GPL issues, the thread was already here, and the GPL issue popped up just because it was related to the thread.
You should also consider that some people don't like Hyperion for whatever reason they want, and thus they don't feel like being "kind" to them in any way. Hyperion should simply live with this fact, and accept that, regardless of the friendliness of people torwards them, mistakes are mistakes, and need to be dealt with.
HJF, in fact, acknowledged his mistake and also admitted that his behaviour online wasn't the most polite one. That's the way to deal with this issue, getting upset about it only serves to create kilometric threads full of people claiming this and that.
> It's not a real interest about GPL misuse -I cannot see any reference to GPL
> misuse of any Windows prog, and I guess there are plenty of them if you are
> really interested in GPL, not to mention other systems...-,
You "guess"? No much use in guessing about irrelevant things, don't you think? Or do you think that someone, just because cares about the GPL, should spend his life hunting all people who infridge upon it? Whenever a case pops up, then the interested people will pop up as well, but only to talk about the case at hand.
As an example: I'm sure you don't like pedofily, do you? Right, you don't. So, why aren't you hunting for pedofilies and reporting them to the police?
If you think pedofily is a mich more important topic than GPL, you're damn right! So if you don't go hunting for pedofiles, despite pedofily being a tragedy, why should I or anyone else go hunting for GPL violators, who can't even compare to pedofiles, importance-wise?
> it's an interest to drag someone to the mud.
It's an interest to debating an issue which is real.
Say I did a mistake, a very blatant one, and someone who doesn't like me points it out. What would have my behaviour to be? Should I claim that person should have talked about it to me privately, or simply humbly apologize for my mistake and remedy to it? I'd go for the latter, it would give a much better image of myself to people and would NOT give the guy who brought up the issue in the first place a further chance to flame me.
> I have a GREAT respect for Bernie Meyer, for his work and for the way he
> posts, always in a very polite and reasoned way, but even if his intentions
> were good, not wanting to do any harm to anyone, he gave 'life' to the trolls
> rantings.
So what, life is tough, if you can't bear with a few trolls you're doomed, my friend. Do you ever put your head out of the door? If you do, you surely know real life is much worse. |