RMS endorsement for the Compromise Public License...maybe

in a manner of speaking, that is....

I remember reading about CPL a while ago in Kernel Cousins, and 
recently, I have been hacking on a new book of essays by RMS, to be 
published soon. The following quote is from the new essay 
"Misinterpreting Copyright: a Series of Errors". RMS does not mention 
the CPL specifically, but....

<<
For novels, and in general for works that are used for entertainment,
noncommercial verbatim redistribution may be sufficient freedom for
the readers.  Computer programs, being used for functional purposes
(to get jobs done), call for additional freedoms beyond that,
including the freedom to publish an improved version.  See ``What is
Free Software'', in this book, for an explanation of the freedoms that
software users should have.  But it may be an acceptable compromise
for these freedoms to be universally available only after a delay of
two or three years from the program's publication.
 >>

(of course, I made a couple of minor changes to this para, but I can't 
release them, strictly speaking ;). Also note the term *may*; I do not 
speak for RMS. But I am not breaking any rules by posting this, because 
the whole book is in public CVS.

And buy your very own copy of `Free Software, Free Society: Selected 
Essays of Richard M. Stallman'!

please cc me in reply, I'm not a subscriber.

-- 
Stephen Compall
DotGNU `Contributor' -- http://www.dotgnu.org

I ask that you please stop calling the operating system Linux. The
Linux kernel is just a small part of the operating system. Many of the
software programs that make up the operating system you call Linux
were not developed by Linus Torvalds at all. They were created by GNU
Project volunteers, putting in their own personal time so that users
might have a free operating system like the one we have today. To not
acknowledge the contribution of those programmers is both impolite and
a misrepresentation of history. That's why I ask that when you refer
to the operating system, please call it by its proper name, GNU/Linux.
	-- RMS