[Fsf-friends] Re: Fwd: Re: [gscp] Goa Syllabus for Linux

Raghavendra Bhat ragu@vsnl.com
Fri, 15 Nov 2002 15:46:02 +0530


Mahesh posts :

>> This is  not the  case with several  licenses approved by  the Open
>> Source Initiative, (OSI),  like the BSD and MIT  licenses.  That is
>> why, BSD license is non-free.
                       ^^^^^^^^

The BSD license is GPL compatible and is free but should never be used
by freedom lovers.  The BSD license  is fraught with danger in that it
allows  a `non-free' fork  to happen  thereby cutting  of the  flow of
oxygen  (freedom) back  to  the original  source.   The free  original
source  will not  get  the benefit  of  being free,  because, now  the
`non-free' fork is killing it.   Freedom for that BSD licensed program
gets  extinguished  because the  very  license  could  not defend  and
protect it.

The modified BSD license. 

This  is  the  original  BSD  license,  modified  by  removal  of  the
advertising  clause.  It is  a  simple,  permissive non-copyleft  free
software license, compatible with the GNU GPL.

The original BSD license. 
 
This is a simple, permissive non-copyleft free software license with a
serious flaw:  the ``obnoxious BSD  advertising clause''. The  flaw is
not fatal; that is, it does  not render the software non-free.  But it
does cause practical problems,  including incompatibility with the GNU
GPL.
-- 
ragOO