From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Lawyer's evaluation Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:06:32 -0400 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <871xud8z7j.fsf@tc-1-100.kawasaki.gol.ne.jp> <87vfro7uga.fsf@tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <877k3yxxjx.fsf@tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1064492590 26220 80.91.224.253 (25 Sep 2003 12:23:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 12:23:10 +0000 (UTC) Cc: miles@gnu.org, stephen@xemacs.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org, storm@cua.dk Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Thu Sep 25 14:23:07 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1A2V9H-00006B-00 for ; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 14:23:07 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1A2VGR-000296-00 for ; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 14:30:31 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.22) id 1A2V5F-0003ic-Tl for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:18:57 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.22) id 1A2V1z-0003PW-Pu for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:15:35 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.22) id 1A2UvA-0002hj-PM for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:08:33 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.22) id 1A2Utz-0002ND-LB for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:07:19 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.20) id 1A2UtE-0004Nx-1b; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:06:32 -0400 Original-To: "Stephen J. Turnbull" In-reply-to: <877k3yxxjx.fsf@tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> (stephen@xemacs.org) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:16627 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:16627 Kim> "Free" means that all users have the freedom to study, share, Kim> change and improve Emacs. In fact, you may freely use and Kim> modify Emacs for your own purposes without knowing any of the Kim> details of the GPL. This is misleading; in order to modify Emacs you must accept the GPL. The GPL doesn't put any limits on private modification, so this is a distinction without practical consequences. Kim> However, once you distribute your changes to others, you Kim> should be aware that the conditions and rights in the GPL Kim> will extend to cover your changes as well, so before doing In fact, it implies acceptance of the license. That is true. That means we really need to say that such distribution must follow the terms of the license. It might be desirable to say that. I don't see how that can happen if the user doesn't read it. Maybe it can't, but please note that if the user has not accepted the license, he is infringing the copyright by distributing without authorization. So this is not a real issue for us. Kim> Also, if you write and distribute an extension to Emacs in Kim> Emacs Lisp (the extension language used by Emacs), that Kim> extension will be covered by the GPL too, as running such an Kim> extension requires "linking" with Emacs. This is true only if you put a strict interpretation on Emacs Lisp, ie, those parts of Lisp that are unique to Emacs Lisp. True, in practice it's hard to imagine substantial Lisp applications that don't do buffer I/O, etc, being written in Emacs Lisp, but it's possible. That is correct. The statement would have to be at least somewhat modified. Also, I agree that we should put this in the FAQ instead.