Re: IESG Response to Copyright appeal

[Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu]

On Thu, 05 Apr 2001 11:53:14 +0700, "Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim" said:
> > for the source wasn't acceptable).  You only need take "prudent steps"
> > for one year to ensure the place you point people stays there.
> 
> Section 3 of GPL http://gnux.vlsm.org/copyleft/gpl.txt has three
> options, "a" (accompany with source code) , "b" (three years commitment
> to distribute), and "c" (providing pointers). So, what is the problem 
> to choose one of them?

The problem is that now I have a directory on the server that has a bunch
of *.tar.gz files identical to the ones on ftp.gnu.org, that are *only*
there because the GNU people said I have to distribute source, and that
the fact that there are probably 327 GNU mirrors that are more likely
to be there 3 years from now than the server I set up is irrelevant to
the GNU people.  And having distributed anything, I now get to keep track
of *every package*, and whenever I remove that package (for instance,
if I package GNU Make 3.78 to replace 3.77) I have to keep BOTH .tar.gz's.
I've now got a make-3.77.tar.gz that I'm stuck with for another 2 1/2 years,
a make-3.78.tar.gz I;'m stuck with for a bit longer, a make-3.78.1.tar.gz,
and I can't get rid of make-3.79.1.tar.gz for  3 years still.  If I had
built a 3.79 I'd be stuck with that one too...

The problem is that when you take *that* stuff into account, I've spent
(or have committed to spending) *more* time trying to comply with the
GPL than I have actually making useful things available.  I quit after
building only about 1/3 of the install kits for AIX that I could have,
mostly because I was digging a maintenance issue.  

The problem is that people won't get the benefit of the other tools,
just because I can't say "as built from source available at
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/foobar/foobar-1.3.tar.gz";.  So in this case,
the GPL has worked against its intent - rather than set up a possible
non-compliance 2 years from now because I may not *be* there anymore,
I've respected the GPL's wishes by not distributing software.

Anyhow, this has gotten far enough afield, and it's late...

				Valdis Kletnieks
				Operating Systems Analyst
				Virginia Tech