[POLITICS] Re: When is the Last Time You Booted to Windows?

[Joel Rees]

On 2006.2.22, at 01:20 AM, Les Mikesell wrote:

> On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 10:02, Mike McCarty wrote:
>
>> My position on this matter is that if one writes something original,
>> then the moment he writes it, it is his sole property.
>
> But, you have to make an exception for a work that modifies
> something covered by the GPL.

No, because you still own the part you wrote, and you can still publish 
the part that you wrote any way you want.

It may not make much sense publishing it out of context, but then again 
it might. That's not really got much to do with anything, because your 
modifications are, in fact, a modification of someone else's work.

>  If you do such work you do not
> control it.  You cannot even give it away without restrictions.
> According to the FSF you do not have the option to distribute
> it under any terms but the GPL.

You can place your work under any terms that are compatible with the 
GPL and publish the aggregate together.

>   With any other license you can
> distribute your own work under your own terms

You can always distribute your own work (but not the work of others) 
under any license you want, as long as you don't distribute it with 
stuff that belongs to other people. The only licenses that allow you to 
distribute the aggregate under any license you want are those that 
specifically say so, for example, the MIT or BSD licenses.

> and leave it up to
> the end user to obtain appropriate licenses for any other necessary
> components.