== http://www.dyer.vanderbilt.edu/server/apcupsd =================
SUSPENDED SUPPORT of Latest APCUPSD Daemon
The suspended support and the removal of all binaries is brought to
you by an unhappy GPL waving, source demanding, end-user........ Since
this person has pushed the issue of the GPL status of the source to
the limit and demanded that I give it to him based on the clause #7 of
the GPL guidelines, even thought I am the author and have the right to
change the license status at will. There will be no more binaries
releases until this issue that this person has pressed me into a
corner that I have not outs. If the source is allowed to be made GPL
again, everything will be normal again; however, if the status of the
source can not be changed, apcupsd will be terminated. Because this
person has left me without any room to move. I am sorry to have
allowed myself and the packaged to be pressed into almost no-win
situtation.
Here is the beginning of the thread that has caused the problem.
message thread
===================================================================
Although my name is not specifically mentioned there, it is
obvious to me, and to anyone who has heard any of the thread
that it is me who is being refered to. If not, the thread
has been linked to for browsing anyways so the lack of my
name on the page is a moot point as it is apparent if anyone
follows the link.
Here is my response to this page. First of all Andre, I have
expressed from the beginning my will to help resolve this issue,
however this help does not extend to breaking the law, or
infringing upon the GPL license.
You were certainly free to be angered by my pointing out of the
GPL infringement, and having subsequently to remove the binaries
from your distribution site.
Since then, both publically and privately I have expressed my
support for what you are doing with respect to APC and have
again mentioned my offer to help. You've issued a public
apology, and I thank you for that. You also seemed to have
gotten past the angered stage of having to remove the binaries.
Now that I've been getting hate mail piled up over the issue, and
have subsequently visited your webpage, I see what appears to be
one of two things.
1) You had put up a page expressing your anger, and have not
since taken it down or replaced it with something more
appropriate.
or
2) You are still angry with me, and want to cause me problems as
well, in the form of people reading the page, and being
themselves angered, and then writing angered hatemail towards
me.
Now, in my mailings with you up to date, you certainly seem to be
a fairly reasonable person, and as such, my current assumption is
that of #1 above.
Assuming so, I'm writing you to inform you of this page, to bring
it to your attention. I can certainly forgive your anger of the
somewhat touchy situation that it has been, and also your
forgetfulness to replace the page with something more
appropriate. If I am to do so however, I can only do so if and
when the page is either removed, or changed in such a way to not
be aimed at causing me problems.
So, I am asking you very politely here in a public forum to both
remove the message thread link from the page (which is where
people are getting my email address to send the irrational
and improperly informed hate mail). As well I am politely
requesting that you replace the comment with something not
motivated by anger, with no personal attacks.
Something which I consider suitable would be something to the
effect of:
SUSPENDED SUPPORT of Latest APCUPSD Daemon
The apcupsd daemon program distribution has been
suspended in both binary and source code forms due to
legal problems with meeting section 7 of the GPL
license under which this program is distributed.
Until these issues are resolved, the apcupsd program will
not be made available, and support and updates of
this program will remain suspended.
Something to that effect, or whatever you decide to put, so long
as it does not reference me, or the message thread.
Also, the current statement says "I am the author and may change
the license at will". Just for your own information, you cannot
change the license without getting permission to do so from all
other contributors to the code, including the packages referenced
in the Changelog as "borrowed code from...". Please don't get
angry for me pointing this out, as I'm only doing so to inform
you as it appears you weren't aware.
Once again, no harm to you was meant by my pointing out that the
program violated GPL. Please also note that I still have no ill
intent towards you personally or professionally. It is and has
been only my intention to protect the proper usage of the GPL
license - brought on by the fact that this particular case
affects me.
I sincerely hope that you will change that page, and that we may
all kill this thread, and go back to work. I also hope that it
has increased everyone's knowledge of the legalities of the GPL
license. I know I've learned a lot more about the license
myself, and I'm sure you have as well.
Thank you in advance.
TTYL
-- Mike A. Harris - Computer Consultant - Linux advocateLinux software galore: http://freshmeat.net
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