Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S272153AbTGYPQj (ORCPT ); Fri, 25 Jul 2003 11:16:39 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S272154AbTGYPQj (ORCPT ); Fri, 25 Jul 2003 11:16:39 -0400 Received: from chaos.analogic.com ([204.178.40.224]:6276 "EHLO chaos.analogic.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S272153AbTGYPQe convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Fri, 25 Jul 2003 11:16:34 -0400 Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 11:33:59 -0400 (EDT) From: "Richard B. Johnson" X-X-Sender: root@chaos Reply-To: root@chaos.analogic.com To: =?iso-8859-1?q?Ga=EBl_Le_Mignot?= cc: Larry McVoy , Jesse Pollard , Larry McVoy , Leandro Guimar?es Faria Corsetti Dutra , Linux kernel Subject: Re: Switching to the OSL License, in a dual way. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <20030724215744.GA7777@work.bitmover.com> <03072508173301.16381@tabby> <20030725145534.GB13840@work.bitmover.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-UNKNOWN Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2702 Lines: 59 On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, [iso-8859-1] Ga?l Le Mignot wrote: > >> Nonesense. If the business no longer has the licence to use BK (for > >> whatever reason) then it no longer has access to the data. Now to > >> get access to the data you must reverse engineer BK... > > > Oh, I see, you violate our license, your license is revoked, and > > now you have the write to reverse engineer BK? Show me the law which > > says that is true. > > I was working on a project during my free time using BK, and then I > get employed by a company contributing to Subversion. My license is > then void, but I want to be able to still use the files and servers I > used before. Reverse is allowed, and moral, in this case. > > > BK has a command that will take a BK tree and produce pure SCCS files, > > there is even a GNU SCCS clone so tell me again you need to go poking > > around in BK? > > Without any lose of data and meta-data ? > And still, my license being void, how could I do that ? > > (of course, I am not in this case - I'll never be crazy enough to use > a non-free software to store my data). > Ever heard of "Peoplesoft"? Some IT types converted a business database(s) to Peoplesoft. The license expired. The company was out of business until it was reinstated. The fee to reinstate the expired license was like extortion. Never again. You don't want to __ever__ convert your company databases to some proprietary format that must be unlocked with a license key that can expire. If you run a business, you need to have access to your database even if the company that produced the software goes out of business so you can't renew your license. If a software company won't provide such a license, then you set yourself up for a stockholders revolt and suit. You need to get a perpetual license. If the software company doesn't provide one, go to the competition. There are software databases and development environments that need to be reviewed to make sure they don't expire. Rational Software is an example. We use Rational for some of our stuff. Can I extract my source-code from their proprietary VOBs if they go out of business? Actually, yes. So, even if we have expiring licenses, we can still get access to our intellectual property. These things are important, but alas... off-topic.. Cheers, Dick Johnson Penguin : Linux version 2.4.20 on an i686 machine (797.90 BogoMips). Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/