[vlc-devel] FSF position on GPLv2 & current App Store terms

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Mr. Smith,

On Tue, Nov 02, 2010 at 12:17:23AM -0400, Brett Smith wrote :
> That's all I'm here to do: point out the facts and explain the FSF's
> analysis.

I am not going to answer to this analysis now, but will make a point
that I hope you will understand in a simple way.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE CORRECTNESS OR NOT OF YOUR ANALYSIS.
THIS IS ABOUT YOUR ATTITUDE.

Your methods and attitudes are not polite, but they are destructive and dishonnest.

With 'friends' like you, we don't need any ennemies.
If I understand correctly, the FSF new policy is to blow up communities?
With those attitudes, do not wonder why people are moving away from Open
Source development and from the GPL licences...
https://www.ohloh.net/languages/compare?measure=loc_changed


* Publicizing the issue to fit YOUR political agenda, without asking if
that was OK, _while_ the issue was being investigated, was not polite in
any way. Your analysis on this mailing list should have came BEFORE your
blog post.


* Blowing away all the PR work of the VideoLAN project seems fine for you?

Of course, you don't care, this is your job. Will you now do the work I
am doing on the VideoLAN project for free?
This volunteer job includes so many things to do that I won't list them
here, but believe me, they take at least 25hours a week (without coding).
You still wonder why more than half of the open source community hates
the FSF? I don't anymore.


* About the dishonesty of your analysis. In your blog post, you refer to
the Gnu GO case (that was refered to in the first analysis of Rémi,
that originated the complaint, but that is irrelevant here), which is
totally irrelevant on the case here, since Apple changed its license.
http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-05-app-store-compliance
You in fact acknowledge this, since your analysis has shifted from
distribution to usage, which is a different topic§.

Not to mention that the title is just misleading ('takes a stand against
DRM'). The complaint does not speak of DRM in any way.
Moreover, in your post, you don't even speak about the relationship
between VLC, VideoLAN and Applidium, making it confusing enough that
all journalists and communities attack VideoLAN.


Of course, do not ever again ask me or the VideoLAN association to support any
of your campaigns.
And you can count on me to say that FSF is harming open source communities.


Now, maybe your analysis is right, maybe not, but that is not the point
of the e-mail. It will be the discussion in another e-mail.


-- 
Jean-Baptiste Kempf
http://www.jbkempf.com/
+33 672 704 734