Subject: Re: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2001 22:22:54 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3213987772416108@naggum.net> * Ed L Cashin <ecashin@terry.uga.edu> | Sounds good, but there is a lot of excellent software I'm using right now | that is the direct result of the "nuts" way, so I'll choose to call it | "proven effective" rather than nuts. Sigh. Not the Microsoft argument! If people work hard enough, _anything_ can be proven effective. | What kind of profit do you mean? I've profited from GPL'ed software | because it taught me programming *before* I was a programmer and before I | had enough money to buy books. I have argued for the educational value of "free software" for years. | Please let us know when you come up with a better way for me to release | code publicly while still being sure that I am not working for MegaBucks | without pay. That appears to be a central argument for "free software", but MegaBucks Inc have the bucks to take all of your work and modify it sufficiently that you will be unable to tell it was yours, and it will cost them less than developing it from scratch. Releasing the source code means that some scumbags _will_ use it in violation of your license, and you will not have a snowball's chance in hell protecting yourself or your source. /// -- Norway is now run by a priest from the fundamentalist Christian People's Party, the fifth largest party representing one eighth of the electorate. -- Carrying a Swiss Army pocket knife in Oslo, Norway, is a criminal offense.