Re: New maintainer

[John Wiegley]

>>>>> Stephen J Turnbull <address@hidden> writes:

> Emacs's GPL being a fact, I would hope John would keep his mouth shut about
> his disagreement while wearing his GNU Emacs maintainer hat (not limited to
> participation in Emacs lists).

I like this, Stephen. Yes, Emacs is, and likely always will be, GPL-licensed.
All my own contributions to Emacs have been under the GPL -- in order to be
compatible -- even those developments not distributed with Emacs, like the
Emacs Chess client, or use-package.

Whether I believe the GPL is a right path socially is, I think, a separate
matter from maintaining Emacs. If asked to speak about Emacs, I will speak
about Emacs. If asked to speak about the GPL, I would make it clear that my
opinions have nothing to do with Emacs, or the FSF, or any other connection
people might falsely draw due to my involvement with an FSF-sponsored project.

However, if you look at the past ten years or so of my online communications,
I've adopted a personal path of not speaking *against* anything, but rather
*for* the things that I believe in. I've come to believe that constructive
positivity is, in the end, a more fruitful path toward change than destructive
negativity -- however much I may dislike certain things in the world.

I mainly brought this up so that people would know where I stand in my
thinking, and not be surprised in the future if anyone should read all of my
old blog articles.

I'm not here to take the GPL away from anyone. I have always supported the
freedom to choose whatever path you want in life, if it does not encroach on
the freedoms of others. If the GPL is that path for you, I would defend your
right to choose it, even if I do not necessarily agree with the path you've
chosen per se.

John