Subject: Re: [lojban] jbofi'e version 0.36 released

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 20:59:07 -0500 (EST)

Robert J. Chassell scripsit:

> So far, when threatened by legal action, every company that has tried
> to sneak past the GPL has given in before going to court. Why? In
> the cases I know of, and I suspect in all the others, their lawyers
> have said: "You have two choices: to give up now or to lose later. It
> is cheaper for you to give up now. So give up now."

Not necessarily. It may just have been "Why risk being sued by these
armadillos? *They* aren't in business, and have no stockholders to
answer to. You can probably win, but only by spending lots of
$$$$, so give up now."

> *You*, I take it, are ready to spend 250,000 US dollars, and more
> likely, four to eight times as much, and time out of your life, just
> to defend *your* right to distribute code that you yourself have
> written with no help or input from anyone else.

That could happen no matter what license I used. Or will the FSF
assist with any GPLed code, whether it is FSF-owned or not?

> If you are not -- or if you are not allied with someone who is -- you
> are `not real'. Of course, if your work is not considered
> sufficiently worthwhile by profitable thieves, then the probability of
> someone trying to steal it in a legal fashion is low. You are dealing
> with a risk management issue.

Just so.

-- 
John Cowan [email-masked]
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
--Douglas Hofstadter