Re: [Axiom-developer] Axiom meeting at ISSAC

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings!  AFAICT:

1) You can build axiom atop a stripped down version of GCL under an
   LGPL license, removing the conflict.  It could still never get into
   Debian.

2) The only rationale for a non-commercial use clause that I can see
   is to keep open the possibility of a controlled separate licensing
   to particular entites for commercial use.  Thus, open Aldor ideally
   could make significant strides which would be available to the
   commercial version, but the latter could "embrace and extend" the
   former, effectively co-opting this work and potentially draining
   open Aldor of its user and developer base.  The copyright holder
   can argue that they earn the moral right to this option with the
   initial source release, but the point as I see it is that no
   volunteer should consider sinking in large quantities of time and
   labor in scaling a steep learning curve and improving the system
   for free if the system isn't effectively guaranteed a very long
   lifetime as a vibrant open source project.  The calculus for a
   volunteer is that the benefit accrued from one's own learning and
   that of many others over a long payoff period more than compensates
   for the time lost upfront scaling the learning curve and possibly
   tailoring the system to any particular needs.

Just my $0.02.

Take care,

  "Bill Page"
   <address@hidden> writes:

> On 7/31/07, C Y <address@hidden> wrote:
> > --- Bill Page <address@hidden> wrote:
> > ...
> > > The problem as I see it is lack of compatibility with GPL.  According to
> > > Stephen this is deliiberate on the part of NAG. Apparently they
> > > object to the "viral" natue of GPL.
> >
> > Erm.  That's very unfortunate, as it automatically introduces a
> > collision with a large part of the open source world.
> >
> 
> Yes, I agree. Several people including me have been trying hard to
> convince NAG of this but they were not convinced. At least they are
> going ahead with an "open source" release of some kind. I don't think
> this is the last statement on this issue and there may yet be ways to
> convince them to change the license to something more compatible. In
> particular Emil Volcheck from ACM is also a strong supporter of a
> truly open source license for Aldor and has offered som advice on how
> to promote this through the official "political" processes at ACM.
> 
> Regards,
> Bill Page.
> 
> 
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> 

-- 
Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
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