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

[Jon Trulson]

On Fri, 8 Jun 2007, Soren A wrote:

> Posted private communication without my consent?
>
> Nice going Jon. My first email to you as copied below was covered
> by the age-old Netiquette of not publicly posting private
> communications without permission. Breaking this principle *used to
> be* enough to earn the scorn and loathing of Net'ters everywhere,
> but I know things have changed, and your "gang" at nas will see you
> as being "in the right" no matter what you did or do next. Now the
> Net is broken up into little sects and cadres of ugly-minded,
> cowardly sheep who huddle together for protection at the slightest
> hint of 'outside attack' instead of letting logical arguments and
> reason put forward by their members stand on its own.
>

   I posted my response to your initial email (cc'ing NAS) because of
   the hostile and outragious tone of it.  Perhaps you did not realize
   that I maintain NAS, and ship *source*.  I do not ship binaries (of
   *anything*).

[...]
>>>>>   Just a user/supporter of FLOSS / Free Software.
> ====  snip ====
>
> So was this just posted to show how "nasty" and "aggressive" the
> tone of Gnu supporters is? Harping about tone seems to be the basic
> refuge people take when they've been shown to be in the wrong on
> the *substance*, and you have.
>
> The fact that you don't understand, Jon, what the GPL is for and
> why  it is important, doesn't give you immunity to flout its legal
> weight, any more than in the case your sympathetic friend Alfredo
> cited. Just as claiming to not know the rules of traffic gives you
> no immunity when you run a red light. The GPL *has* legal weight
> and that legal weight is vigorously defended precisely *because* of
> people like you who refuse to understand why it needs to exist. If
> everyone understood its soundness and beneficial effect it would
> never need to be used as a legal tool; its moral weight would be
> enough.
>

   Wow.  I do not really know what you mean by 'GNU' supporter.

   I had a problem with your hostile accusations (not based on any
   semblance of fact I could find).  In addition, your second email,
   threatinging me with RH lawyers... I mean come on!  I had to stop
   laughing before I could respond.

> I notice that you still have the Cygwin port of NAS on the NAS
> homepage (as of this writing) and it *still* does not contain a
> proper license statement explaining that as it is using GPLed
> software it must only be used under the terms of the GPL itself
> (meaning that "you can do anything you want with it" -- like turn
> it into proprietary software -- is still NOT ok). Nor is the source
> code for the changes made to NAS to produce those Cygwin binaries
> available as it must be under GPL terms, as far as I can see.
>

   Ah!!!  Man dude, a little research could've avoided this entire
   thread hehe.  As the NAS maintainer, I *only* ship source code.  It
   is available from the website, it's mirrors, and via SVN if you'd
   like.

   In one of your friendly emails, you even quoted the section on the
   website, where I mention the guy who provides these windows
   binaries.  Even if there was something illegal going on, *he* was
   the one you should have been talking to (though I'm glad you didn't
   - he's actually a nice guy, and does the NAS community a service by
   maintaining them for windows users).

   There is no 'seperate' cygwin source code.  It's *one* source, with
   all Operating Systems united in peace and harmony.

   Really... Download it.  Look for things like 'CYGWIN' in the
   source.  It should help you in your quest for justice.

   So... should I still expect a call from Redhat's lawyers? Or...?

> So good luck with the breaking of rules that were conceived back
> when people still cared about how they came across to others in a
> small community of hackers, and good luck with any other character
> attacks you might like to launch. I hope it all comes as a great
> solace to you when the real world catches up to you at last. I'm
> certainly going to remember you as one of my most interesting
> Internet encounters: the bold pugnacious rebel bravely thumbing his
> nose at the big bad FSF. Are you going to be picketing the ASPCA
> next week? Maybe the Red Cross?
>

   LOL, I will *definitely* remember this encounter :)

-- 
Jon Trulson
mailto:jon at radscan.com 
#include <std/disclaimer.h>
"No Kill I" -Horta