Apple acquires CUPS source

[Charlton Wilbur]

On Jul 12, 2007, at 9:36 PM, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

> I think you have a problem parsing what I write Charles...

No problem at all, Jerry.  Unlike the problem you apparently have  
correctly reading and spelling my name.

>> And before you go throwing words like "theft" around -- it's not  
>> theft when the rightful owner agrees to transfer his ownership.
>
> Did I talk about theft regarding the GPL ?

No, but you have, in the prior thread regarding the iPhone and the  
GPL, referred to the use of BSD-licensed code according to the  
license as "theft."

>>> What benefit would a BSD license here ?
>>
>> Apple wouldn't have to buy the rights from the owner to avoid  
>> releasing its modifications.
>
> No. I am asking what is the benefit in the _current_ state of  
> affairs when exceptions can be more powerful than no exceptions at  
> all.

There is no benefit at all, and very little net benefit from keeping  
it open-sourced in the first pace.

> Why do you think they did not grant exceptions for OSes other than  
> Apple's OSs ?

Because nobody else paid the copyright holder enough.

>>   This [BSD] is more likely to lead to a source tree with public  
>> free bits and private proprietary bits that benefit each other, as  
>> can be seen with the BSDs and OS X, as opposed to this situation,  
>> which is likely to lead to a total project fork.
>
> "Likely"... Why would that be when obviously the only contributor  
> keeps the GPL ? You have no idea what you are talking about. Just  
> like forks are poping out every time a project changes owner. Take  
> a look at the reasons why forks are created in the first place that  
> will help you realize why you are totally wrong.

The only person with any rights to do so made a prior version of the  
code available under the GPL.  The current rights holder can't revoke  
that, but is under no obligation to continue doing so.  There is no  
guarantee that future versions will be made available under the GPL;  
in fact, I'd wager that one of the principal reasons for the purchase  
was to allow Apple to make contributions that they didn't have to  
release.

> Besides, I have a few questions: have you ever contributer to GPLed  
> code ? Or to a GPLed fork ?

Yes.  Have you?

Charlton


-- 
Charlton Wilbur
cwilbur at gmail.com
cwilbur at chromatico.net