Skribent: Daniel Brockman Dato: Til: System undo crew CC: unsystem Emne: Re: [unSYSTEM] the gw of darkwallet can cost 4.2M USD.
Peter Todd writes:
> Heck, that could be a hilarious business model for libbitcoin:
> AGPL with no linking exemptions, but if you don't want to make your
> services sourcecode public you can buy a license from unsystem.
That would be cool. I think RMS would approve:
RMS> When I first heard of the practice of selling exceptions, I asked
RMS> myself whether the practice is ethical. If someone buys an
RMS> exception to embed a program in a larger proprietary program, he's
RMS> doing something wrong (namely, making proprietary software). Does
RMS> it follow that the developer that sold the exception is doing
RMS> something wrong too? RMS> If that implication is valid, it would also apply to releasing the
RMS> same program under a noncopyleft free software license, such as the
RMS> X11 license. That also permits such embedding. So either we have
RMS> to conclude that it's wrong to release anything under the X11
RMS> license -- a conclusion I find unacceptably extreme -- or reject
RMS> this implication. Using a noncopyleft license is weak, and usually
RMS> an inferior choice, but it's not wrong. RMS> In other words, selling exceptions permits some embedding in
RMS> proprietary software, and the X11 license permits even more
RMS> embedding. If this doesn't make the X11 license unacceptable, it
RMS> doesn't make selling exceptions unacceptable.