ask for APSL? for real this time?

Gary Fisher gafisher at sprynet.com
Wed Jan 7 14:56:42 UTC 2004


Hi, Lex!

Thanks for the link to the FAQ; if Squeakers weren't so darned nice that
link (on a newsgroup, at least) would have tightened up the discussion a
great deal, or EOF'd it entirely.  (-:

Though I agree that companies love good Community Relations, and implicitly
that Apple (and Disney) are for the most part Good Folk, the fact remains
that Marketing and PR departments must still answer to Finance and Investor
Relations, both of which tend to be oriented more toward today's closing
numbers than tomorrow's bright possibilities.  As Andrew has so well (and
carefully, and repeatedly) pointed out, license negotiations are never
trivial; what was agreed to when Squeak was perceived as little more than a
hobby project may be seen differently now that it's become, at least
potentially, commercially viable.

Nevertheless, it would certainly be unfortunate if the lack of OSI approval
would alienate you and other valuable contributors.

Gary Fisher



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lex Spoon" <lex at cc.gatech.edu>
To: "The general-purpose Squeak developers list"
<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 3:49 PM
Subject: Re: ask for APSL? for real this time?


> Gary Fisher <gafisher at sprynet.com> wrote:
> > The only benefit of the perennial licensing discussion is that it
demonstrates
> > that Squeak continues to attract dreamers.  Unfortunately, it also burns
up
> > bandwidth (cheap) and enthusiasm (priceless) while accomplishing little
of
> > value that couldn't be better dealt with via FAQ.
>
> It is covered in an FAQ, which I linked in my first message.
>
> http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/159
>
>
>
> > Rather than opening the can of worms which could ensue in reopening the
Squeak
> > license, which would be likely to result in more rather than less
restrictive
> > provisions given recent efforts to turn IP into revenue[...]
>
> That is impossible.  Squeak is already released on Squeak-L, and that
> can't be undone.
>
> It is also pessimistic.  There are many reasons to think Apple might be
> cooperative: they already open source a lot of their stuff, and they
> have already attempted to open source Squeak.  Companies love to be seen
> as befectors of the community, and Apple has already settled on open
> sourcing as a cheap technique for doing this.
>
>
> -Lex
>




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