Re: [seul-sci] [Fwd: Credit where credit is due]

[Robert Hopcroft <hopcroft@qwest.net>]

Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:

> Yes, I'd rather RMS concentrate his considerable talents on the real
> issues of explaining to commercial development managers and software
> buyers why GPL is better than just 'open source', but Richard doesn't
> see it that way, and I think his tenacity on this issue does his
> movement more harm than good.  IMHO, it would be more useful to push
> for recognition that certain softwares such as Linux (the kernel) are
> GPL and why this is more advantageous than a BSD or Artistic license.

I would like to see RMS realize that the GPL extends to information in
general and bring out a license covering all forms of digital information
from documentation to audio/video. Soon all digital forms will be
integrated.
I feel this is were his real contribution lies.

In seul.org/archives/seul/edu/Jul-1999/msg00389.html I stated
"About 8 years ago I inquired
about the price of the 5 volume set of von Neuman's collected works.
When I found out the price was over a 1000 dollars, it became apparent
that I was never going to have the knowledge at my fingertips that I
wanted. While pondering this, I came across the FSF and GNU. What I
immediately realized is that these ideas apply to information in general
and I started thinking about how to make human knowledge available to
everyone."

Again I feel there is something far far bigger for RMS to be credited
for.

Bob