Re: [COFF] [TUHS] 386BSD released

On 7/15/21 7:58 PM, Theodore Y. Ts'o wrote: I believe I understand the spirit of what you are saying. However I have a question: Was the need / requirement for your physical presence motivated by (a lack of) technology? Or was it more an interview of you / your team to determine if your contributions were desired or not? I see a huge difference behind raw code and the team (trust ability / intentions) behind the code. May people can do work required for a job remotely, yet must apply and interview for said job in person. So, what was the real gate / blocker? Technology to accept the code? Or meeting / getting to know the person / representative of the people behind the code? I think this touches on the crux of the issue for me. Does the ability to see the source code (in and of itself) constitute a license to use said source code (or compilations there of)? My opinion is that no, the ability to see the source code is not the same thing as a license to use said source code. There are many examples where visibility of source code and licensing to use it are two completely independent things. There are many freely available programs with licenses to run them which do not provide any access to source code. You probably only need to look as far as your Downloads folder for an example of such software / licenses. There are many freely available programs with licenses and source code. The Linux kernel is a quintessential example. There are fewer examples of programs where you can see the source code but do not have a license to run said program. I know that Microsoft has made (parts of) Windows source code available to various institutions. I'm confident that there are other examples. So to me, there are two circles with some overlap between them, forming three broad categories that software can fall into. Closed Source / Open License Open License / Open Source Open Source / Closed License I believe that many people think of "Open Source" as being the middle overlap where both the License and the Source are open. This may be accurate more of the time than it is not. However I think that assuming it to /always/ be the case is ... unsafe. After all, look at the terminology: Open /Source/. Emphasis on the word "Source" as short for source code. Nothing about source code in and of itself implies a /license/ to use it. Sure, there is quite likely an ability to use the source code (if you have all of it). But the ability to do something does not mean that it's proper or legal, much less proper, to do so. -- Grant. . . . unix || die