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[DotGNU]Re: My Favorite soapbox : XML linkage


From: James Michael DuPont
Subject: [DotGNU]Re: My Favorite soapbox : XML linkage
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 15:12:17 -0700 (PDT)

> This was (and is) true of HTTP/HTML too, no? The web
> is open but not free 
> and there is no viral aspect to sending a receiving
> all sorts of data
> using Internet protocols (HTTP, SMTP, etc). I don't
> see this as a
> function of using XML.
My point is that one of the reasons that the GPL was
popular is because it provided a key service and no
way to use it without linking. The open protocol
removes that, the linkage. The weakens the GPL to just
asking people not to use XML and other formats to
link. 
The GPL becomes a paper tiger, I am sorry to say.

> from primarily creating free or open code. This is
> one reason that we in
> the Jabber community struggle with some issues that
> purely source-based
> projects don't (e.g., working with the IETF or other
> standards bodies, or
> creating our own mini standards organization in the
> Jabber Software
> Foundation -- see our "JEP" process at
> http://www.jabber.org/jeps/). I'm
> not saying this is better or worse, just that it's
> different.
I think it is commendable.

> covered under JOSL. The two or three main clients
> (WinJab, Gabber, and
> Exodus) are all covered under the GPL. By "main"
> here I mean most popular
> and most widely deployed. Thus I must question your
> assertion and point
> out that the percentage of commercial code in the
> Jabber ecosystem is
> quite low compared to open and free code. However,
Ok, I had that feeling a while back when browsing he
available implementations and looking for one to try. 
Back then, one  GPLed dephi application had some
strange resizing problems... The number of commercial
implementations was quite high.

> the protocol is in the
> public domain in a non-viral fashion, so people
> definitely can write
> proprietary code that implements the Jabber
> protocol. Whether such
> proprietary code will win the greatest mindshare and
> marketshare in the
> end is quite open to doubt. Or so it seems to me.
Of course that it the way to go for jabbber.

But if you wanted to provided a service to only GPLed
clients, there is no way to implement that under the
GPL. That limits the usage of any of the newer data
exchange protocols, even like jabber to the code GNU
tools. Each one can be abused via XML and linked to
without remorse.

Regards,
Mike

=====
James Michael DuPont

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