It has been a very important aspect of Python that it does not involve
itself in the philosophy of 'propriety vs. non-propriety' and 'commercial
vs. non-commercial' software. It can be used in any -- it is a powerful,
awesome language which is usable however you want to use it. The GPL is as
much moral and political as anything else, and if Python were 'protected'
by it, it would preclude its uses in a variety of places that it is used
today.
#1) CNRI did not propose a license change, they /changed/ the
license. The word 'propose' is inaccurate here. Why? They believed the old
license was not legally viable -- that it would not stand up in
court. They had lawyers who told them that. Is it true? Who knows. It's
inconsequential now -- what's done is done. 1.6 and derrative work
(Notably, 2.0) is covered under the new CNRI license.
#2) www.python.org is owned and operated by CNRI. Guido, when he was an
employee of CNRI, had access. He quit his old job and moved to a new
one.... since when does one get access to the computers at their old job
when they leave?
#3) The 'new' employeer, BeOpen, who is now employing Guido and others to
work on Python, is hosting their work at www.pythonlabs.com. The future of
python.com? Who knows. It is irrelevant, to me -- it's a /website/, it's
not the language, and they have not tried to ostrasize Guido or
pythonlabs.com (the BeOpen python developers site) -- notice the links?
#4) ActiveState is producing some Python-addatives, and is bundling them
up with Python to ship them all together. Most of this will be
windows-specific, or at least that's my understanding. The bundle,
together, in its entirity, with their addatives, will cover its own little
license -- but that is a layer on top of the CNRI license discussed in
#1. It is the /bundle/ and the stuff /they made themselves/ which is being
licensed/copyrighted, not Python itself.
#5) There is no 'corporate hijacking', there are corporations and people
working on Python. 1.5.2 is the current latest version. 1.6 is the next
version, still in beta, and will be released by CNRI. Then, 2.0, based off
of 1.6, and thus covered by the CNRI license plus whatever license that
code contains, will be released by Guido and the folks at
BeOpen/PythonLabs. Python 3000 is Guido's ideal for a rewrite of Python
into an even better language. Python 3000 does not exist, its a myth at
the moment, something that people are discussing.
No corporation has taken over. If you actually go over and read this stuff
you'd see no one has actually tried. Guido, His Holy Majesty The Creator,
is still being employeed to develop Python -- and y'know
what? _He's_not_the_only_one_! Quite a few top-Python folks are now
employeed by BeOpen/ActiveState with the job of improving our
language. That's not hijacking. That's funding CNRI paid Guido in the
past -- what's wrong with a different company paying him in the future? Do
you remember that Python was _origionally_ developed by Guido under some
german-ish university or something? CWI? It's in the copyright notice
that you see when you start Python, if memory serves.
You're vastly overreacting and being much-paranoid, my friend.
···
On Fri, 25 Aug 2000, Poupaert Erik wrote:
I'm a bit surprised at the statement by CRNI at www.python.org in which they
propose a license change for the python source tree.
At the same time, I understand that administrative access to the
www.python.org site has been removed from Guido Van Rossum, the author of
Python.
I also understand that ActiveState (www.activestate.com) is now creating
Visual Python for inclusion of python into Microsoft Visual Studio. At the
same time, work on the current source tree (python 1.5.2 and python 1.6)
will be stopped completely. The idea seems to be that some elusive
python3000 will be the follow-up project.
In the light of all this, what is the future of wxPython?
In my opinion, the python/wxPython community have made a serious mistake in
not placing the Python and wxPython projects under the protection of the
GPL, in order to prevent the above-mentioned corporations to hijack the
source trees.
Can anybody give me clarifications on what is going on and re-assure the
community that the Python/wxPython future is safe from corporate hijacking?
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