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From: gl8f@astsun8.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,alt.flame
Subject: Re: The GNU Public License
Message-ID: <1811@hudson.acc.virginia.edu>
Date: 31 Jul 89 00:26:04 GMT
References:  <26@ark1.nswc.navy.mil> <26719@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <5351@ficc.uu.net> <9655@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <1989Jul30.210646.12194@twwells.com>
Sender: news@hudson.acc.virginia.edu
Reply-To: gl8f@Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Organization: Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia
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In article <1989Jul30.210646.12194@twwells.com> bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) writes:

>Most of the anti-GNUs have learned that arguing with those who
>approve of the GNU philosophy is like arguing with medieval religious
>fanatics: there is no positive gain to be had, and one is likely to
>get torched as well! (There maybe ought to be a smiley there, but
>while the modern torching is metaphorical, it is just as real.)

Why argue with them? They give away software; you can either use it
or not. You can agree with their opinions about intellectual property
or not. Best of all, you can ignore them completely. I live with
lots of people with whom I disagree, yet I live in peace.

>The GNU philsophy is so brain-damaged that no person who actually
>*thinks* about it would hold it. (For clarification, I'm referring to
>the ideas relating to intellectual property rights, not to the idea
>of providing free software.)

However, insulting the intelligence of those who don't agree with you
is a poor debating tactic. No wonder you have little luck convincing
anyone.

>But to those who are confused about the issue, I will just point out
>that the FSF is a parasite on that which they despise. Consider the
>status of a parasite that would kill its host, the morality of a
>person who would destroy the society that makes his morality
>practicable, and the rationality of biting the hand that feeds you.

Imminent Death of Commercial Software Predicted!! Just think of all those
companies writing C compilers and editors that will go out of business
because their products are inferior to GNU C and GNU Emacs? Sniff, sniff.

FSF will not kill the computer industry. And why is this in comp.misc
anyway? Intellectual property rights sounds more like a topic for
misc.legal, imminent death of this or that for misc.headlines or
alt.conspiracy, and parasites for sci.medical. Sweeping insults
of the intelligence of this or that group is appropriate for
alt.flame, not cross-posts.



------
Greg Lindahl
gl8f@virginia.edu                                             I'm not the NRA.