[haiku] Re: haiku Digest V9 #239
- From: Christopher Walker <sven.hakonsson@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 18:36:49 -0600
He's right. The guidelines use non-mandatory language like "*Please* include
the following disclaimers..." and in no part of the source code licensing is
it mentioned that "distributions" must follow these guidelines. (At least
not to my knowledge.) The only legally enforceable part of the guidelines is
the trademark policy, as Nicholas says. And even then, not in every country
and not until great expense.
One of the things that makes Linux and many of its distributions so great is
that there are relatively few restrictions on derivatives. When you place
additional restrictions and boundaries, you discourage change, improvement,
and growth. If there has so far been one thing I've disliked about the Haiku
project, it is this "guideline." (Okay, this and the fact that I still have
no wifi for my netbook.)
On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 6:15 PM, Nicholas Blachford
<nicholas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Ryan Leavengood wrote:
>
>
> >Finally since we all seem to agree that Haiku, Inc should handle
> >trademarks issues, issues like this should be handled in the future
> >with more speed and directness.
>
> Get used to it, there's going to be a whole lot more issues in the future.
>
> This thread is quite timely as I'm in the process of writing a rather long
> email about the guidelines.
> I've long thought the guidelines were not very good but looking closely
> there are actually quite a few problems with them. I understand what their
> aim is but I think that in their current form I think the guidelines are
> rather more likely to backfire and have the exact opposite effect to what is
> intended. The name policy in particular is likely to cause a great deal of
> confusion.
>
> Here's an example:
> People keep talking about "violating" the guidelines. That is impossible,
> the guidelines are voluntary. You cannot violate anything that you don't
> have to follow in the first place.
>
> The only thing you can violate is the trademark policy, but even there the
> only way you can enforce that is by going to court, anyone sufficiently
> determined will just drag it out until Haiku inc. is bankrupt, and that's
> not likely to take very long.
>
>
> I'll not write anything else now, my email (when done) will explain what I
> think the problems are in detail, and suggest solutions. Some are simple
> and can be fixed with rewording, others are rather more complex and subtle.
>
>
> BTW what version of gcc was the Alpha compiled with?
> If the answer is anything other than gcc 2.95.3 then Haiku has "violated"
> it's own guidelines.
>
>
>
> --
>
> Nicholas Blachford
> nicholas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.blachford.info
> "You'll be a dentist - You have a talent for causing things pain!
> Son, be a dentist - People will pay you to be inhumane! "
> - Little Shop of Horrors.
>
>
>
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