Michael Dolan Dot Com

Friday, March 10th, 2006

Linus discusses GPL3, sharks, and evil laser beams…

A somewhat humorous article over a Forbes.com that highlights Linus’ stance on the GPL3 – I tend to agree with him. With GPL3 the FSF is taking licensing beyond just code to saying what you can/cannot do with the code from a social (evil vs not evil) perspective. If you’ve ever sat in a philosophy class, you know it’s difficult to even define what evil is.

Take a look, I think Linus’ initial reaction re: PGP signing may have taken too liberal view of what the GPL3 actually says. However, listening to RMS, it’s clear he views vendors like Tivo to be “evil” purveyors of GPL code. I tend to like my Tivo and am somewhat proud that it runs on Linux. I am swayed by Linus’ argument – keep the license focused on code, social pressures can handle the DRM issues.

Do we need an “Evil Tux” with laser beams on his head?