[OSGeo-Discuss] Lidar News magazine false statements on (L)GPL (Was [OSGeo-Standards] REPORT: my OGC membership slot)

Jo Cook jocook at astuntechnology.com
Mon Sep 21 03:44:08 PDT 2015


Brilliant,

I'd be happy to see that blogpost published as a rebuttal.

Jo

On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Martin Isenburg <martin.isenburg at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> We (Oliver and me) had contacted the (new) editor (Roland Mangold who is
> cc-ed) last week and suggested to use the contents of this blog article
>
>
> http://odoepner.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/lidar-news-publishes-uninformed-gpl-rant/
>
> authored by Oliver Doepner as a factual rebuttal of Lewis Graham's FUD
> rant on GPL/LGPL for publishing in the next issue of the LiDAR Magazine
> (the two-month ago rebranded LiDAR News magazine). I have no final word
> from the Roland yet but our communication suggested that this would happen.
> Please check Oliver's column for any errors (should you care) so he can
> correct them prior to this being published.
>
> Regards,
>
> Martin @rapidlasso
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 11:52 AM, Jo Cook <jocook at astuntechnology.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I think this is something that we at OSGeo should definitely respond to.
>> Perhaps we could contact the magazine and explain that there were some
>> factual errors in the article, and ask for a chance to respond?
>>
>> Jo
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Johan Van de Wauw <
>> johan.vandewauw at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 6:31 PM, Martin Isenburg
>>> <martin.isenburg at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > Another curious thing is that I (and the open source license LGPL) was
>>> > attacked vehemently in a recent column called "Open Source Mania" by
>>> Lewis
>>> > Graham that was published in the LiDAR News magazine. Viewer discretion
>>> > advised and parental guidance suggested ... you will not like this FUD
>>> > attack:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> http://www.lidarmag.com/PDF/LiDARNewsMagazine_Graham-OpenSourceMania_Vol5No4.pdf
>>> >
>>>
>>> I read the article and there are a lot of statements there which are
>>> false.
>>> " if you touch a piece of GPL code with the nine foot pole of
>>> launching it with a Python script, that script must now be GPLed"
>>> not true
>>>
>>> "Suppose you have developed some very, very clever algorithm on which
>>> you and your university have applied for a patent. If you have coded
>>> your algorithm and used any GPL whatsoever, you just GPLed your
>>> patent. The patent rights effectively transfer to the Open Software
>>> Foundation for free distribution."
>>>
>>> Completely untrue. The Open Software Foundation does not exist. You
>>> don't transfer patent rights at all. A well known counter-example is
>>> the algortihm for MP3, where the code (lame) was released under LGPL.
>>>
>>> I think as OSGeo we should reply to the statements, this is an attack
>>> on our community. Perhaps we can ask someone from the Free Software
>>> Foundation Europe to help write a response?
>>>
>>> Kind Regards,
>>> Johan
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Jo Cook*
>> Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey,
>> KT18 7RL, UK
>> t:+44 7930 524 155
>> iShare - Data integration and publishing platform
>> <http://www.isharemaps.com/>
>>
>> *****************************************
>>
>> Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
>> Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN VAT no.
>> 864201149.
>>
>
>


-- 
*Jo Cook*
Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT18
7RL, UK
t:+44 7930 524 155
iShare - Data integration and publishing platform
<http://www.isharemaps.com/>

*****************************************

Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN VAT no.
864201149.
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