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[f-cpu] beard mode on (suite et peut-etre fin)



hi,

i just saw a translation of a text from RMS
and here is the original text :
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/gpl-american-way.html

Of course it is not directly related to our situation but some parts (well, not everything,
forget the part about M$ attacks) are easily transposed :

"
  For the sake of cooperation, we encourage others to modify
  and extend the programs that we publish. For the sake of
  freedom, we set the condition that these modified versions
  of our programs must respect your freedom just like the
  original version. We encourage two-way cooperation by
  rejecting parasites: whoever wishes to copy parts of our
  software into his program must let us use parts of that
  program in our programs. Nobody is forced to join our
  club, but those who wish to participate must offer us
  the same cooperation they receive from us. That makes
  the system fair.
"

This means that it is not a matter of what you offer in
exchange, because freedom is not a 'ware' that can be sold
(well, not anymore, slavery has been abolished, i think).
It is further explicited later :

"
  From time to time, companies have said to us, "We would
  make an improved version of this program if you allow us
  to release it without freedom." We say, "No thanks--your
  improvements might be useful if they were free, but if
  we can't use them in freedom, they are no good at all."
  Then they appeal to our egos, saying that our code will
  have "more users" inside their proprietary programs. We
  respond that we value our community's freedom more than
  an irrelevant form of popularity.
"

Of course we will discuss at length about the exact
meaning of the GPL in the context of the F-CPU.
i hope that we will find a compromise, in terms
of unconstrained freedom and maybe of usefulness for the
industry. But it is the code writer(s) who decides
of the copyright he puts on his work.

You can now go back to your previous activity,
YG :-)

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