Re: SGI releases IA64 C C++ and F90 compiler under GPL

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds at transmeta dot com>]

On Mon, 22 May 2000, Stan Shebs wrote:

> 
> I really hope that Linux does not get hosed by its casual approach to
> ownership.  It wouldn't take very much Microsoft-owned code in Linux to
> provide them with an excuse to make you spend the rest of your natural
> life in court, and if they win their antitrust case on appeal, as seems
> quite possible, they will be free to deal with that pesky Linus as they
> would like.  At that point the FSF will be looking pretty clever for having
> insisted upon copyright assignments...

You know what? Take your joy in life from the fact that some day you may
be able to say "I told you so".

In the meantime, I'll enjoy the feeling that what I do is _right_. In the
end, forget the law. If you cannot do what is ethically right, and trust
the people you know, then yes, you can protect yourself with reams of
paperwork. 

I'd like to live in a world where exchange of ideas is free. Where people
get credit for what they do. And where people don't let their fear of the
law make them do the wrong thing.

Let the FSF be clever.

I'm advocating being _wise_. 

		Linus