Re: hello

[Yann Guidon <whygee@f-cpu.org>]

hi,

graham@belegost.mit.edu wrote:
> > hello
> > i just come from the f-cpu mailing list.
> > let's wock.
> > WHYGEE
> wock!?? yumme, chinese food :-)
speeled differently, "let's 'ock" or "let's rock" in the normal accent ;-)

> I liked the background to the fcpu license you mailed to
> the f-cpu group a while back. Could I pin it up on the
> hardlicense web page as a starting point for discussion?
get comfy and do whatever can advance the debate.
criticize and do whatever you want, but remember the willingly
utopic idea that it holds.

of course i don't think that everybody will conform to the
rules, because they are guidelines in the spirit. the goal is to
prevent and avoid the problems that may arise in an industry
that is different from the software industry. in the last mail to
Rares Marian, i explained the latest ideas.

> And if so, can I remove the references to 'intellectual
> property' ;-) ? [see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html
> for why]

i'll have to have a look. what do you want to replace it with ?
if you modify the text, just include your own comments so we know
who does/thinks what.

the f-cpu project is exhalting because we are a crossover of a lot
of different cultures and mentalities. hardcore industrial,
academic, hackers, utopists and hacktivists, electronicians who think
they know everything, that's very funny. no matter if the project
"fails" or "succeeds", it's a fun community with a lot of surprises
and mutual enrichments.


For the F-CPU licence, i think that my goal is to have a new concept.
it's not a freeware, not public domain, it's more "hardcore" than the GPL.
it's a stronger licence than the GPL because of some of the additions
i want to include (including the obligation to divulgue the source at
no cost and no delay through the Web, anonymously for the retriever).
But, more fundamentally, with the GPL the copyright belongs to the
author and (iirc) to the people who added/modified it. for the F-CPU,
it's a community, so the copyright belongs to this community. The problem
is that it has no legal existence : it is ideally every engineer that the
Earth holds. i think that i have reached a point of no-return : the f-cpu
belongs to everybody and nobody. the point i want to make is : because it
belongs to everybody too, you have no right to hide it, to make your own
version without releasing it freely at no cost (the same way you obtained it).
Of course, the "parallel market" of the money makers with CD distros is
valid, as long as this free alternative is provided. otherwise it wouldn't
be fair. As a parent, even if you're "only" a father (because the mother
has had all the pain of giving birth) you have one half of your genes in
your child's genes. When a nurse comes to care for them, it's a natural
right to check if your babies are ok. i did the same thing with the f-cpu's
"software" : the goal is to prevent anybody/companies to pollute the "freedom"
spirit. I have seen GPL infringements through "reinterpretation" of the GPL.
with the disclosure paragraph, we can keep companies from hiding "features",
or including features that break the community's efforts. Intel's and M$'s
efforts in that domain (obscure data formats and hidden "features") are a threat
not only to the consumer's rights but also to our freedom and our society's
integrity (ever heard about the commercial use of the Neurotic Spook Agency ?)

this engineer dream has taken me far from my initial, simple goal...

Nicolas Matringe asked on the f-cpu ml :
> I don't understand why source code (VHDL or Verilog) can't be protected
> by existing public licenses (GPL or whatever). It's only source code, like C.
> HDL is only a *functionnal* description. Different synthesis tools won't
> produce exactly the same hardware from the same source code (that's why
> I am currently running the same design through 2 synthesizers to see which is the best).
> I don't think EDIF netlists (synthesis output format) can be protected
> by existing licenses but HDL source code should.
i'm not a specialist, anyway. he made a point but i don't know which.


last question : can i get a tarball (gziped please) of the whole mailing list archive ?


> Graham
WHYGEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the F-CPU: http://www.mime.univ-paris8.fr/~whygee/f-cpu.html
SHARCPAGE: http://www.mime.univ-paris8.fr/~whygee/sharcpage.html