A few comments

[Ethan Blanton]

Colin Barrett spake unto us the following wisdom:
> On Oct 17, 2007, at 8:51 PM, Ethan Blanton wrote:
> >Colin Barrett spake unto us the following wisdom:
> >>Isn't telepathy-haze behaving the same way?
> >
> >Not at all.  Telepathy and telepathy haze are both Free Software
> >projects.
> 
> But I could very easily use the telepathy dbus API to write a closed  
> source, commercial IM client. AFAIK this is what Nokia is doing, and  
> other people I know are looking at using telepathy-haze in similar ways.

Per my previous arguments in this thread, you should understand that I
believe that that is a violation of the GPL.  The telepathy D-Bus API
is very clearly an API.  (Note that one could probably create very
useful applications using only the simple signals telepathy omits,
which I would *not* consider a violation of the GPL, necessarily.)

> I just don't understand the negative attitude towards something like  
> the Skype plugin. It is a cool idea, and a number of people have  
> requested this functionality.

A number of people have requested the assassination of any public
figure you care to mention.  That doesn't it right.

> Perhaps we just have different goals -- my goal is to create cool  
> software that anyone can use, share, and contribute back to. When  
> software licenses prevent cool things from happening, that's a damn  
> shame.

I agree.  In fact, I do not always agree with the GPL, or the
restrictions it levies.  However, Pidgin was written under the GPL, by
authors who believed that the GPL was the Right License for it, and I
believe that, as a current Pidgin supporter, to circumvent that or to
assist others in circumventing it is wrong.

I certainly believe that, all other things being equal, Free software
is better than non-Free software, and that the GPL is grand stab at
Getting it Right.

> I'm a little off topic at this point, so contact me offlist, Ethan, if  
> you want to continue this thread of conversation.

I don't think this is terribly off-topic, so long as it touches upon
Pidgin.  This sort of discussion is healthy within the Free Software
community.  This *particular* discussion has been the most polite and
equitable such that I can recall having ever seen.

Ethan

-- 
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes.
		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764
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