Naive Response 666

[Jan Schenkel]

--- On Sat, 6/4/11, Roger Eller <roger.e.eller at sealedair.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 12:50 PM, Jan
> Schenkel wrote:
> > The fact that it is 'some sort of GNU license' doesn't
> mean that you're free
> > to do as you please and 'steal' them for your own
> collections.
> >
> > I find it appalling ... flame ... flame ...
> >
> > Shame on you, Richmond!
> >
> > Jan Schenkel.
> > [Advertisement Removed]
> 
> Public flogging always helps matters.  An off-list FYI
> might me more
> appropriate and considerate.
> 
> ˜Roger
> 

Hi Roger,

You are correct that I could (and should) have more carefully chosen my words. In my ten years on this list, I've hardly ever taken up a flamethrower to burn someone to a crisp. And I certainly don't want to make it a habit.

Open source is something I do feel passionate about, and I always take care to understand and adhere to the license under which something was made available. After all, someone put a lot of their time into creating it, and these efforts should be respected.

And, yes, I do have a dog in this race: Quartam PDF Library is a free / open source project, under the Affero GNU Public License. So the impression that a GNU license is something to ignore and open source stuff something that you can just 'steal' from, got me worked up.

Indeed, the better route is educating people, even when you're tempted to scream so that it will 'get through peoples' thick skulls' - and I certainly gave into that temptation.

So I will chalk it up as a reminder that whenever you feel the need to use strong language, you should put the email into your draft folder, and make sure to throw it out or edit it heavily when you revisit it a few hours later.

I offer my apologies to Richmond, who was trying to share the wealth, in a way convenient to LiveCode developers. And I thank him for his swift correction with regards to the license situation.

Best regards,

Jan Schenkel.
=====
Quartam Reports & PDF Library for LiveCode
www.quartam.com

=====
"As we grow older, we grow both wiser and more foolish at the same time."  (La Rochefoucauld)