From: rbs{at}snippets.org
To: c_echo{at}yahoogroups.com

On Sat, 2 Aug 2003 CHARLES ANGELICH wrote:

> You couldn't GPL it and brag about using it at work. You would've cut
> your own throat because all the code you were paid to write would have
> to be made available to everyone for free if it included GPL'd code.
> Cute of you to try and make it sound the other way round though. ;-)

What you say here is so brain-dead I totally missed it the first time
around... Read the GPL - it enforces what has become known as "Copyleft".
Despite all the cure names, it *is* a copyright notice. Users are
restricted from selling the code and some rather strict limitations are
made WRT what they can do with software incorporating GPL source.

In contrast, *all* SNIPPETS code is either explicitly public domain or
freely licensed for any legitimate use. The only restriction on any
SNIPPETS code is the one I place on MFL components when I donated them
that they couldn't be repackaged as a library to be sold. Beyond that, the
code is free for *anyone* to use for any purpose, private or commercial.

Unlike GPL source, no effort is made to restrict what people can do with
the software they produce from it. Shoot, other than an implicit honor
system, there's nothing really preventing someone from deleting the header
and claiming personal authorship, other than the risk of future
embarrassment if they claim copyright and it's challenged.

Your point, if any, appears to be that anyone using SNIPPETS code isn't
forced by law to release his/her software with a GPL. I make my living not
from schools or non-profit organizations, but from companies with the
budgets to afford my rates. I don't know about companies where you live
(actually, I do, but let's just say I don't for the sake of argument), but
no commercial clients of mine will touch GPL code with the proverbial 10
foot pole! If I want a pool of reusable software objects that I can use to
do my job, GPL is useless. SNIPPETS, OTOH, is explicitly designed to be
useful even in a commercial setting.

In short, GPL code has strings attached. SNIPPETS code does not. With that
in mind, would you care to explain your statement above? Is it simply that
after SNIPPETS has been in existence for some 15 years, you never read the
SNIPPETS rationale or understood its purpose?

I always seem to come back to the same question - are you stupid or
merely nasty?

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