"MRB" == Michael R Bernstein <Michael> writes:
MRB> On 26 Jun 2001 10:30:06 -0400, Barry A. Warsaw wrote: >> >>>>> "JA" == Jerome Alet <alet@unice.fr> writes: >> JA> For Zope it's not sure, but for Python, as well as for all JA> what people usually call "open source" languages, the license JA> of choice should be the GPL, or at least the LGPL, in order JA> for the language in question to not become bastardized by some JA> powerful entity. >> I think I'm accurately channeling Guido when I say that Python >> will never be GPL'd. AFAIK, there is no GPL code even in the >> standard Python distribution. Both of those states of affair >> are by conscious decision: regardless of what you think of the >> GPL (and I personally happen to believe it can be a good >> license for /some/ software, but not all) GPL'ing Python would >> be a very bad thing. Guido has always intended for people to >> do whatever they want with Python, including using it in >> everything from closed source, proprietary, big-$$$ software to >> completely free software. MRB> I guess I don't understand how licensing Python under the GPL MRB> would prevent people from writing proprietary software in MRB> Python. Here's a case in agreement with the above: There's a statistical language, "R", whose implementation is GPL'd. Recently, a research organization in Australia (who shall remain nameless) starting selling a binary package for it to do microarray analysis. So, value-added software, and the question was whether it violated the GPL. Current thinking (as well as that of the R-core team) was to state that if they wanted to profit, fine, as long as they didn't build using GPLd header files (and the core team promptly LGPL'd the headers). best, -tony -- A.J. Rossini Rsrch. Asst. Prof. of Biostatistics U. of Washington Biostatistics rossini@u.washington.edu FHCRC/SCHARP/HIV Vaccine Trials Net rossini@scharp.org -------- (wednesday/friday is unknown) -------- FHCRC: M-Tu : 206-667-7025 (fax=4812)|Voicemail is pretty sketchy/use Email UW: Th : 206-543-1044 (fax=3286)|Change last 4 digits of phone to FAX