GPL: fear is the key

Sam Varghese
Monday, 16 July 2007 06:02

Opinion and Analysis

 Such fear is largely driven by ignorance. And a lack of information. Some among these so-called pundits have agendas too.

But try telling that to them, the ones who spout these "the_GPLv3_is_going_to_spell_the_end_for_FOSS_if_it's_adopted_on_a_large_scale" prophets.

You'll won't have much success in convincing them - play has to go in one direction for them to move forward.

You do get the occasional sensible bit of commentary, such as a piece I spotted by Brian Profitt, the managing editor of Linux Today. Profitt is one who looks behind the obvious and analyses things before he commits finger to keyboard.

He also has that rare commodity - commonsense - and the ability to look beyond the end of the year. Foresight, a much misused word, is greatly in evidence.

And, of course, there are people like Eben Moglen, the main legal brain at the Free Software Foundation, who is moving on to run the Software Freedom Law Centre.

Moglen is an intellectual. When you speak of him, you need to use adjectives like wise; he has crossed the stage of being merely knowledgeable a long time back.

You only have to listen to a talk he gave in Edinburgh, Scotland, on June 26 to understand where this man is coming from.

To the reader I say, take a bit of time and listen to his talk. Or else read a transcript.

If you can be bothered to do so, you'll begin to understand the breadth and depth of vision that he has brought to the task of getting this licence off the blocks.

Detractors - the fear squad - would, of course, say that he's on one side of the equation.

True.

That doesn't mean that his arguments don't have merit.

If they are logical, they deserve a hearing. But that's only if you want to hear logical arguments from his side and have an open mind on the issue.

Else, don't bother.