2 ms·
I understand why people would like discussing GPL with RMS, but RMS is not a legal scholar nor has a legal background or education. If we look into the history
by belorn 4y ago
I understand why people would like discussing GPL with RMS, but RMS is not a legal scholar nor has a legal background or education. If we look into the history of GPL we see that RMS himself did not arrive at the finer legal details by himself, but rather through the help by his friend Eben Moglen who is a professor of law and legal history. RMS tend to focus on the philosophy and the strategic use of GPL towards free software goals.
The concept of "linking" in GPL also came from Eben Moglen. The legal theory was fairly simple, ie, would a non-technical judge see a linked program as one large single copyrighted work or two independent separate works (originally in US legal context only)? RMS initially viewed it as two works, but Eben Moglen had a different view about it, which RMS then changed his opinion to.