Re: [tlug] JFS file system license

["Ian Wells" <ijw@example.com>]

2008/10/30 Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com>:
> I say "extort" because (as I said above) some authorities don't
> believe that use of an API constitutes derivation.

Setting aside what the law and the licence says, and assuming the
current moral stance[*] that if I create a work it's my property, then
if I write code, it's my prerogative to say to people what they can
and can't do with it.  Thus it would be my choice to say 'you may use
this library with only Free programs' or 'you may not link this
program with non-Free libraries'.

RMS seems clear on what he wants, but has made a complete mess of
describing it.  Thus there's a great deal of 'RMS says that the GPL
means x' going around.  Ditto 'Linus says that you can do this with
the kernel'.  The last I checked, their pronunciations are not law.

(In my experience - and Eric Raymond was another example, in times
past - people at the top of the Cult of Programming seem to believe
that they are all powerful, speak for a large constituency, and the
world bends to form itself to what they describe.  We can all be
grateful that this is not actually the case.)

>  > Interesting. What is a "process," and what does it mean to be "in" or
>  > "outside" of it? Would that be a virtual address space, and "in" it mean
>  > any data mapped into that space?
>
> It's a virtual address space, and it means program code and program-
> provided data.  I/O is not part of the work covered by the program's
> copyright, although of course it may have its own copyright and
> attendant licensing.

A case in point: find me either legal precedent or law that supports
this interpretation.  He may have taken legal advice on the subject,
but it certainly seems to be 'I say this and it shall be so' from the
peanut gallery.

-- 
Ian.

[*] Some days I find it incredible that we have this whole set of
ethics with intellectual property which is entirely fabricated.  I can
create something, and at no loss to me I can create an identical copy,
and give it to someone else.  But I get to do what I like to my copy,
and they can only do what I say with it.  Better still, I can make as
many copies of it as I like and each one is worth what I say it is:
even central banks can't do that...