From kragen@dnaco.net Sun Jul 19 14:46:25 1998
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 14:46:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: Kragen <kragen@dnaco.net>
To: "Bradley M. Kuhn" <bkuhn@ebb.org>
cc: clug cincinnati linux user group <clug-user@clug.org>
Subject: Re: Explaining licensing (again :).
In-Reply-To: <19980719132057.59341@ebb.org>
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On Sun, 19 Jul 1998, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote:
> Thus spoke Kragen:
> > These were the questions he refused to bother to answer.
> 
> Please stop making statements like this.  He did not have time to answer you
> questions because he is a busy person, and he would have probably had to
> refer them to a laywer anyway!
> 
> Why don't you call your laywer and ask him/her?  Of course, this is a
> question that I have asked you many times that you refuse to bother to
> answer.

I didn't actually refuse to bother to answer it, but I hadn't yet
answered it.  Sorry about this.  The answer is twofold:
- I don't know any lawyers who specialize in software copyright, and if I did,
	this is an expensive answer.
- I'm a lot more interested in what RMS thinks the GPL permits than in what
	the law thinks it does.  If someone does something RMS thinks violates
	the GPL, using some FSF sources, they're likely to spend a long time
	in court (or settle) regardless of whether or not he is right.  OTOH,
	if someone does something that definitely violates the GPL, using
	FSF sources, but RMS doesn't think it does, they get to do it anyway.

> Do you see my point yet?  Refusing to bother to answer and not having the
> time or resources to answer are *very* different thing.

Not really.  He didn't think the question was important enough to
devote some of the time and resources he has to answering it.  I
disagree, but that doesn't make him automatically wrong.

If someone says they don't have time to learn how to use computers,
that means that they're unwilling to postpone other things they're
doing to learn how to use computers.  They are deliberately (or perhaps
thoughtlessly? but I don't think RMS is doing this thoughtlessly)
refusing to learn how to use computers.

> Same as with my email to President Clinton.  I suppose you would say he
> refused to bother to answer it.  I say that he didn't have time nor the
> resources to answer it personally.

He probably responds personally to several pieces of correspondence
each day.  Perhaps he didn't think you or your issues were important
enough to postpone other things to answer.

Kragen