[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Too busy to accept help? I'm not complaining

[From: Jussi Pakkanen]

--- Lorn Potter <lpotter at trolltech.com> wrote:

> > There is also the problem of free software that is
> > GPL-incompatible (MAME etc). They can't link
> against
> > GPL libraries, nor will anyone buy a commercial
> > license for them. Which means you are pretty much
> screwed.
> 
> No, this just means that MAME is screwed.

In case you missed it, I wrote "MAME etc" in my
message. MAME is far from being the only program with
this problem, see for example here:

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses

Among the software listed as GPL incompatible are
OpenSSL, Apache, original BSD stuff, anything Eclipse
related etc. Not that I'm saying that most of those
would make sense on a portable device, but the point
remains that _you can not use those programs and
libraries on an all GPL platform_. In principle even
compiling and using them on your own machine would be
illegal.

> MAME has it's own legal problems, so I really doubt
> any company would 
> take the chance on delivering that on a device.

And here is the other problem. This is not about "a
company delivering a product". It is about an
individual developer's right to develop and port free
(but GPL incompatible) software and distribute those
programs to other people. Under a GPL/commercial dual
licensing method you can't do that without paying some
company money. A lot of people object to that.

There are disadvantages to both approaches. LGPL
allows closed source development without giving back
to the community and GPL is incompatible with some
free software licenses. During this and other similar
threads you have vehemently denied any and all
problems with GPL/commercial licensing while
downplaying LGPL.

There is a word for blindly refusing to accept any
other point of view than your own as having any merit.
Figuring out what that word is is left as an exercise
to the reader.

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