Wine license change

[Sean Farley]

On Thu, 7 Feb 2002 12:54, David Wheeler wrote:

> If the license isn't changed, Wine is going to continue to suffer from
> code forks.

Forks can happen with the LGPL and GPL.

> The current license encourages companies to take Wine, make a
> proprietary fix, and keep the result proprietary, ...

No.  It does not.  I read nothing in the current license to *encourage*
companies to do what you claim.

> In my opinion, the LGPL more accurately reflects how most Wine
> developers _actually_ work. I think many contibutors expect that
> anyone who improves Wine itself will give those contributions back to
> the community, while still allowing proprietary programs to use Wine
> as a library or infrastructure.  The LGPL merely changes this
> expectation into an enforceable requirement.

Expecting the world to always give you _____ (fill in the blank), can
lead to a depressing life.

When I share, I don't expect someone to repay me.  If I expect them to
pay me back, then it is not sharing; it is just a loan or purchase.  If
I contribute to a open source project, I prefer it if everyone can use
it freely (as in liberty - BSD license) without having to pay for
permission.  I know companies may use it without contributing back, but
some will.  The project will live quite well without them.

Sean
--------------
scf at farley.org