At 01:27 29/06/99 , Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:
That would be us (Andi and me), and we still hold the position that people
should not be given the legal right to do whatever they wish with PHP. I
doubt this clause stopped anybody from using PHP for legitimate purposes -
it was one Email away.
Perhaps, but I also doubt it has stopped anybody from using it for
illegitimate purposes.
You have no way of even remotely knowing that. I don't either, the good thing is that we'll never have to find out. Fact is we got no reports of anybody reselling PHP, whether it's because of the 'restrictive' license, because nobody tried to do it or because we have a bad 'intelligence network' - we can't really know, and it's not all that interesting either.
And actually, your statement is not true. It has stopped a couple of
companies and delayed others. It is a real hassle when you have companies
that require a hardcopy written permission document, especially when they
then question whether this document is coming from an established legal
entity of some sort. Which it obviously isn't and as such means nothing.
Tough. We don't agree about it (we never did), and I for one don't think I'll change my opinion, definitely not in the near future. I won't lose sleep over a company that didn't use PHP because they had to write an Email and wait for an Email reply or even a snail mail hard copy. It's a symptom of a totally lame company.
I do agree that we have to wrap up some more reasonable&recognized legal entity, though.
I currently have a list of 3 companies that need something formal sent to
them. Due to all my belongings being in boxes and the chaos that has
ensued because of my move, I have not gotten around to sending these.
So how come you're not telling us to do it instead? Legally, there are five other people that can send them the same note. Who are they anyway? Companies that were approved through on core@ but mailed you personally for a hard copy?
Zeev
--
Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> http://www.zend.com/
For a PGP public key, finger bourbon@netvision.net.il