Re: Distribution of CERN WWW software

Jean-Philippe Martin-Flatin (syj@ecmwf.co.uk)
Wed, 16 Nov 1994 13:45:26 +0100

On Nov 16, 11:57, Tony Sanders <sanders@bsdi.com> wrote:
>
> Francois Fluckiger writes:
> > The only change is that the material distributed will remain
> > copyrighted by CERN. As a consequence, a copyright notice will have to
> How annoying.
>
> > We hope all those who have trusted CERN WWW software will continue to
> > do so, and will appreciate that these conditions not only maintain the
> > free distribution but better protect it.
> No, I don't buy any such nonsense. It's either free or it's restricted.
> Please explain. I'll reserve my real flames until later.
>
> Sounds more to me like they are going to start charging for access
> to the technology.

Sounds to me CERN want to prevent other people from making money out of CERN's
work, which is a very reasonable thing to do IMHO. Of course, if BSDI made money
selling CERN WWW software in the past, you may not appreciate it :-)

CERN's policy for WWW software seems very close to MIT's policy for X11. Are you
unhappy with this one as well ? Do you also hate copy-lefted GNU software ? Must
belong to a very restricted club, then... :-)

Jean-Philippe

---
Disclaimer: Not speaking for my employer