Eric Raymond responds to post on am-info

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

A member of am-info sent Eric Raymond some of the correpondence that
discussed his views.  He responded in the message below, which begins
with excerpts from an exchange between Brett and Stan Johnson.  Since
Eric isn't a subscriber, and can't post, I am forwarding this to the
list. Jamie



       Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 16:21:32 -0500
      From: "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>
 Organization: Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs
 

> At 06:54 PM 12/5/98 -0500, stan johnson wrote:
>  
> >This is absurd. Even if your accusations against Eric Raymond are   
> >accurate, and I see little reason (though some) to credit them, so   
> >what? 
> 
> Then people should expose him as what he is: an exclusive advocate
> of the GPL who is attempting to forestall other alternatives while
> pretending to give them consideration.
> 
> >Your agenda is at least as extreme as you allege his to be, in   
> >that you don't even accept the validity of alternatives other than your   
> >own favorite. 
> 
> Bull. I see room for both commercial software and redistributable 
> software whose source code can be used for commercial purposes. As
> such, I am very much in the middle of the road. Raymond embraces 
> the extreme strategy of the GPL: to wipe out all commercial
> software.

I don't know what planet this guy Glass is from or what drugs he's
been smoking.  But describing me as an "exclusive advocate of the GPL"
is just plain factually 100% wrong.  The www.opensource.org pages don't
advocate the GPL any more than they advocate BSD, Artistic, or MIT
licenses.

Oddly enough, my position is exactly what Glass claims for himself.  I
see room for both commercial software and redistributable software
whose source code can be used for commercial purposes.  And I have
repeatedly stated this position on the Web, in print, and in interviews.

In fact, I find myself under fairly constant rhetorical sniper fire from
FSF diehard types convinced that the Open Source campaign is an attempt
to sell "free software" out to corporate interests.  Mr. Glass's
claims are, to say the least, peculiar.
-- 
                <a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>

If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would
... [be] the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is
possible.
        -- Henry David Thoreau
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