problems of the fdl

eli, is it possible for you to agree with the goals of rms but see the flaw in
some of his means?  this is what stephen is trying to say, even if his wording
is not completely tactful.  rms clearly has difficulties putting himself in
other people's shoes; the innumerable stories told about his anti-social
behavior should be ample proof of this.  he also appears to have difficulties
admitting he is wrong.  put these together, and even the most well-intentioned
person in the world is going to sometimes do things that are hypocritical.  this
is *NOT* the same as saying that he is intentionally this way; in fact, i
serously doubt this is the case.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <[email protected]>
To: "Stephen J. Turnbull" <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2003 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: xemacs wiki


> > From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" <[email protected]>
> > Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:37:55 +0900
> >     >>
> >     >> sorry, i am writing more out of frustration than anything else.
> >     >> the fact that we have to worry so much about licensing issues
> >     >> in free software -- and that they are clearly creating serious
> >     >> impediments -- just sucks.
> >
> >     Eli> That's true, but some will say that it's not the license that
> >     Eli> sucks, it's the world out there that forces us to worry about
> >     Eli> these nasty details.
> >
> > One, at least, of those is a hypocrite: rms.
>
> Stephen, your outburst of enmity is at least misdirected: I didn't
> mean RMS when I wrote that sentence (AFAIK, RMS does NOT think the
> details of the license are ``nasty'').
>
> In an ideal world, freedom would be an understandable right and the
> default in every human endeavour.  That this is not so, is the primary
> reason we need licenses and lawyers in the first place.  That's what I
> meant when I wrote the text you obviously so grossly misunderstood.
>