On 13 July 2017 at 13:54, Alvin Starr via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

Thinking more about it I am not sure that there is a conflict there.If I use Apache to run my web site I am still within the ideals GPL.My PHP application does not need to be GPL and if I write a special module for Apache that does not need to be GPL.If I try to make money off selling Apache with my module or PHP then I run afoul of the intent of the GPL.

Not sure, as the Apache license is not the GPL.

But... if you were to run your code on your own servers as a web application, you can close it all off and you're not running afoul on aanything.

Your comparison of Office/OOffice/Gdocs is interesting but you could just as easily substitute Gdocs for www.theweathernetwork.com or Linkedin.

Except that I was comparing office suites :-)

The question should be: Are you locked into a proprietary data format?

That, and the portability and privacy of your data, are arguably more important to most users than the "freeness" of the code itself. This is why, IMO, the open source versus free software debate is more pointless than ever.

The real issue is; can I take my data with some application and can I move it to some other application? And that has little to do with any of the copyleft schemes.

Yup.

Once upon a time I developed a bunch of IBCS software for a project I was working on but the project was going nowhere so I released it to some Linux kernel folks with the request that I get "some credit".

That would have been BSD license which is essentially "do what you want but don't erase my name as creator". Didn't need to go as far as GPL.

I am also not sure that this is a religious fight.Religious fights usually involve people killing each other. I often say there are only 2 true evils in the world: Politics and Religion. Its the reason we kill each other en-mass.

May be, but I have see SOME civil discussions on religion. At least a few,,,,

Cheers,

- Evan