[nas] Re: You are apparently unaware that you (with NAS) are violating the GPL?

[Alfredo Ferrari]

Dear Jon

if you need oranges when in jail let me know, I use nas since years
and I am willing to contribute to your defense fund, even to write a 
letter to Mr. Bush supporting your pardon after the unavoidable sentence 
(but you are not American, am I wrong?), just in case.

Just to add a bit of personal experience: I had interaction about some 
(large) scientific software I and colleagues developed along the years and 
which is not GPL or MIT or anything like that because the Institutions I 
worked for so decided. This software ended up by mistake into the (GPL'ed)
version of cernlib originally built for Debian (and now available from 
Fedora Extras as well).
The guy who packaged the stuff noticed that very likely there 
was a mistake and kindly e-mail'ed me asking for clarifications, and we 
agreed what was best to do (in that case simply remove the stuff since
the license was incompatible).
Just to say that not all GPL supporters are like this guy.

                      Ciao
                     Alfredo

       (100% sympathetic and always surprised why free software supporters
        who are otherwise doing a magnificent job, are sometimes so
        agressive)

  On Fri, 8 Jun 2007, Jon Trulson wrote:

> On Fri, 8 Jun 2007, Soren A wrote:
>
>> I must be crazy to write back ...
>> 
>> I have no idea why I am being so generous and nice to you, with
>> that attitude; but here's the info that you apparently have
>> forgotten about.
>> 
>
>  Oh man....
>
>
>> ====== snip ======
>> Precompiled Binaries/Packages
>>
>>    * NAS v1.9 Solaris binary packages provided by James Lee on
>> Blastwave
>>          o Package information
>>
>>    * NAS Mandrake support provided by Per Øyvind Karlsen
>>          o NAS is shipped with Mandrake now. The libraries are
>> installed as part of the base system. To install the nasd daemon,
>> run 'urpmi nas' , or find it in the rpmdrake Software Manager. To
>> install the header files (for development), install via 'urpmi
>> nas-devel'. NAS v1.7 is available on Mandrake Cooker, and from
>> their various mirror sites.
>>
>>    * Redhat 9 and Fedora RPMS and SRPMS provided by Richard June
>>
>>          o Fedora Core 1
>>          o Fedora Core 2
>>          o Redhat 9
>>
>>    * MS Windows precompiled binaries provided by Nicolas Escuder
>>
>>          o NAS for Windows MS Windows binaries compiled under
>> Cygwin by Nicolas Escuder. This archive includes the nasd server,
>> as well as libaudio.dll and a few clients.
>> ====== snip ======
>> 
>> on http://www.radscan.com/nas.html
>> 
>> I only point this out so that you can prepare a little bit for when
>> you hear from RedHat's lawyers. I've alerted someone in a role of
>> official capacity with Cygwin at RedHat about this.
>> 
>
>  I look forward to it.
>
>> Any further correspondence between us (sent to me by you) is
>> subject to *public* posting at my discretion. You've been warned.
>> 
>
>  ditto.  Have a nice day :)
>
>> 
>> --- Jon Trulson <jon at radscan.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Fri, 8 Jun 2007, Soren A wrote:
>>> 
>>>> WRT http://www.radscan.com/nas/nas-README.txt
>>>> 
>>>> Violates the GPL license that applies when NAS is built with
>>>> (distributed as) a Cygwin-linked binary.
>>>> 
>>>
>>>    Wow, nice to meet you too!  You meet so many cool people on
>>> the
>>>    internet.
>>> 
>>>> Your "un-obnoxiously licensed software" is *GPLed* software if
>>> you
>>>> distribute it / deliver it via Cygwin.
>>>> 
>>>
>>>    No, it is not.  Also, if you had bothered even checking your
>>> facts,
>>>    perhaps you would have noticed that I do not ship binary
>>>    distributions of NAS at all.
>>> 
>>>> Did you even bother to check?
>>>> 
>>>
>>>    You obviously did not.
>>> 
>>>> And it is also incorrect, unsupported and nasty to distribute
>>> the
>>>> Cygwin1.dll as part of your application binary package for that
>>>> platform (MS Windows). Cygwin1.dll must be provided on the end
>>>> user's system by installing Cygwin (see www.cygwin.com).
>>>
>>>    I will keep that in mind should I ever decide to ship binary
>>>    versions of nas for windows.
>>>
>>>    Cygwin is an impressive project - I wonder, why the hostility
>>> toward
>>>    NAS?  What's the real problem here?
>>> 
>>>>
>>>>  Regards,
>>>>   Soren Andersen
>>>>   Just a user/supporter of FLOSS / Free Software.
>>>
>>>    Unless the software is MIT rather than GPL?
>>>
>>>    I'll CC the NAS mailing list in case someone on there has an
>>>    opinion.   But thanks for the friendly chat.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Jon Trulson
>>> mailto:jon at radscan.com
>>> #include <std/disclaimer.h>
>>> "No Kill I" -Horta
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> -----
>> 
>> 
>> "Unattended children will be given espresso and a free kitten."
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>
>

-- 

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Alfredo Ferrari                ||  Tel.: +41.22.767.6119                  |
|  CERN-AB                        ||  Fax.: +41.22.767.7555                  |
|  1211 Geneva 23                 ||  e-mail: Alfredo.Ferrari at cern.ch        |
|  Switzerland                    ||          Alfredo.Ferrari at mi.infn.it     |
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