Introduction, Licensing Question and the Introspector Project

[James Michael DuPont]

Thanks for writing. 
I am busy reading you 1999 paper.

> > My question is if there is any way that a GPled program could
> prevent
> > such added value information from being extracted from it.
> Firstly, I see no reason why you would or should try to prevent that.

The reason for preventing the usage of the gcc by non-free software
are understood by me now. There are a number of add-ons to the gcc that
would not be there if the developers could get away with not linking to
the gcc. 

The ObjectiveC and C++ support were among them, see :
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2000-01/msg00572.html

> Of course, the "no linking to a GPL program without being GPLed"
> clause means that programs that are specifically link to this 
> information must be GPLed. 
The problem is that you can create a file format standard and dump the
data into that, this is done by the SWAGKIT/GXL/CPPX 
http://www.gupro.de/GXL/
http://www.site.uottawa.ca:4333/dmm/
http://www.swag.uwaterloo.ca/~cppx/
There are many companies interested in this and they do not care about
supporting free software or contributing anything back into the
community. That is why I want to prevent my work from being used againt
the GNU project.

> But of course, generic programs that can make use of
> this
> information as well as any other information need not be GPLed
> (the scripts that use the information and any specific routines
> invoked by those scripts only might have to, however).
That is why a new form of license is needed to protect this data.

> In the end, it will be a lawyer battle to determine where the GPL
> stops.
> Ouch. Don't feed the sharks - use the bugroff license
> 	http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/5947/bugroff.html
I could, but I intend on linking into GPLed code to extract the needed
data. THe Buggeroff could only cover the sections that use XML to talk
to the GPLed. For the GPled code we need to think about preventing
> 
> My 1999 article "Metaprogramming and Free Availability of Sources"
> 	http://fare.tunes.org/articles/ll99/index.en.html
> might help understanding that deep down, all these licensing
> restrictions
> are something evil that one should not invoke lightly.
I am reading this right now.


> What about other issues regarding cybernetics?
I am also sick of licencing. That is why I am working on getting rid of
any data that could be used to compile with out of the introspector,
the ASTs need to be mangled to prevent the compliation from them but
still allowing intelligent information to be extracted. That will at
least protect the gcc.....

Hope to talk with you soon,
Mike

=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

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