[LAD] Background on the Impro-Visor project

[Grammostola Rosea]

laseray at gmail.com wrote:
> On Monday 27 July 2009 13:10:50 Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>   
>>> I have contacted sourceForge
>>> about his posting of sources relating to the project, and they
>>> suggested filing a copyright infringement (the project is copyright by
>>> me and Harvey Mudd College).
>>>       
>> You don't want that Raymond does forge his own version of Impro-Visor?
>> Why not? I can't see any damage by doing this.
>>     
>
> Of course, because there is no damage. In fact, my fork will help popularize
> the application. That guy does not understand that though. There is no
> such thing as negative publicity, ever heard that expression?
>
> The only reason people like that do not want forks is that they cannot bear
> the thought that someone might take their idea and improve upon it in ways
> that they could not. It is all power-tripping to maintain control of something
> that you have already released into the wild by virtue of using the GPL.
>
> When you use the GPL you essentially are letting go of control. People
> should read more before they use certain licenses. If that is not what they
> want, then do something else. It is ultimately the responsibility of each
> person to understand the license conditions and obligations upfront.
> Anything less is just incompetence.
>
> Complaining about actions that are completely legitimate and ethically
> correct is a one way ticket to looking like a fool.
>
>   
>>> a lot of the thinking that went into the project is
>>> that of me and my students.
>>>       
>> And also by some GPL coders.
>>
>> You won't share your knowledge?
>>     
>
> Exactly. Selfishness. Keep control. Be top dog. All ideas that do not
> sit well with those of us that believe in the philosophy of free software.
>
> Free software is about meritocracy. You do good things, share those things,
> welcome others to contribute, discuss differences of opinion (when people
> are reasonable, this is not of one of those cases), and so on.
>
> Raymond
>
> P.S. The Improvisor project still exists on SF along with the files.
>
> Check: http://sf.net/projects/improvisor
>
> I wonder why that is. I know, because there is nothing wrong being done.
> Unlike the packages on the Impro-Visor Yahoo group, mine actually
> have the GPL license. Thus, Impro-Visor continues to violate the GPL
> even with the old version up. Check for yourself and see how incredulous
> that guy is. Plus, he also lies about any copyright infringement. There
> aren't any infringements with the packages I put up, they are exactly the
> same as the ones on the Yahoo group, aside from actually being in compliance
> with the GPL or the file names.
>
>
>   
I  like to see also some comments about the issue by others, who know a 
lot of GPL etc.

Thanks in advance,

\r