Re: [realtime] License issues

[Paolo Mantegazza <mantegazza@aero.polimi.it>]

Philip N Daly wrote:
> 
> A further question ... this time for the RTAI developers: since RTAI is
> open source what is the point of using the LGPL? Am I correct in thinking
> that license issues that affect me can be overcome by the RTAI development
> team switching to GPL - that way RTAI would conform to license paragraph
> 1A.

Below is a statement I already posted many times.

"OSS mainly means that when your work is copied it must be acknowledged.
If it is expanded it should be given back to the community. If that is
not the case it is a true shame, but I do not have the money and will to
pay lawyers to chase anybody. If people are expanding just their own
applications by using OSS they can rightfully do so, but should keep an
eye on being helpfull to the OSS community if something can be of
general use."

With that in mind why on earth should I bother RTAI users more than that
by setting it LGPL?
Can you imagine a way of checking what people are doing, or me becoming
Sherlock Holmes? BTW who would be Watson? Should be better to be "Bond,
James Bond" ?

Note that at the beginning there even was no specific copyright, but
just a request to remember me, see the erliest RTAI distributions.
So when RTAI users/friends told me I had to use a strngthened copyright
I simply asked: which is the less contraining? It turned out LGPL and
LGPL it was.

Even now that RTAI has become a many hands project no developpers has
ever bothered of changing it. Take note that among the developers there
are even "could be" competitors. I will always try to grant having it
the way I stated above.

Note that having it LGPL does not forbid you to make your work GPL, just
distribute your code according to GPL, including RTAI is clearly not a
problem, and you are GPL.
This adds one more reason to avoid bothering RTAI users, as such an
action need to be taken, if it is needed at all, just in the USA and. As
I said already, there is no need to bother the rest of the world for
that. Why should I push people to enforce US rules in their own
countries?

Summing up: RTAI being GPL or LGPL is _NOT A PROBLEM_, air is there to
be breathed. 

Ciao, Paolo.