money handling

[Bruce Perens]

Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> By having SPI join the political fray directly you are indirectly
> stating that all the projects that are under its umbrella somehow
> agree with the direction that the SPI is taking.
It doesn't have to be indirect. We could take a poll. We'd certainly win
on the software patenting issue, and probably on a number of others.
> That will be a problem. It will be a bigger problem as more projects
> join, assuming you want more projects to join.
Joining is a sort of vote, too.
> The long and short is there is no common effort except in the most
> extreme and broadest of sense.
I can't agree. We have one issue that is poised to sink every one of our
projects if it goes badly for us, and maybe PostgreSQL first. Common
effort on that one would not be a problem.
> There are fundamental and almost theological differences between just
> BSD and GPL.
I created the definition of their common ground - in the DFSG / OSD, and
9 years later that has stood very well.
> Do you really think you can heard that many different cats into even
> the remote possibility of a common effort?
I've done it a few times so far. It's not possible for everything, but
significant common ground exists.
> Case in point, the BSD License is not GPL compatible.
I guess you didn't know, but you're arguing licensing with an Open
Source licensing expert who advises attorneys on just these issues.
Motorola, NCR, NTT, Philips, HP, Merrill Lynch have all used my services.

Of course the BSD is GPL compatible, even FSF and Richard say so. Maybe
you're talking about licenses with the old BSD advertising clause, which
even Apache has given up. The philosophy behind the two licenses is
different, and that is beyond this discussion.
> Debian believes that everything should be Free
Debian's social contract and it's more complicated than that, and you're
arguing with the person who created it. And I'm not sure you are
portraying what the BSD camp believes properly. But that is for another
discussion.
> I don't bring this up to start a license war, frankly I think that
> both licenses have a very important role to play. However it does
> underline significant differences in ideology within just the FOSS
> movement. 
Yes, but Joshua, we are talking about stuff I've been working on for at
least 11 years.

    Thanks

    Bruce