Re: lynx-dev Licensing Lynx: Summary

[Brett Glass]

At 02:39 PM 10/5/99 -0400, Gene Collins wrote:

> Brett, in plain unvarnished language, you are full of it.  Lynx has been
> under the gnu license for a long time, and I as a totally blind person
> have been using lynx for just about as long.

Good for you. I'm trying to get other blind people ON the Net, and they
don't find it to be optimal -- or even practical. They get quite
discouraged, and I can understand why.

> I've found the developers
> of lynx to be more than responsive to my needs as a blind person.  For
> you to expect that others who have written software and put it under the
> gnu license to just hand it over to you for whatever kind of a fee is
> totally irresponsible.

No; it's absolutely responsible. Certain large companies I might name
would just have copied it. We were actually offering programmers money
for their efforts. Horrors! What a concept!

> What blind folks really need is general access
> to operating systems, and the wide variety of software they run.  Other
> vendors have for the most part solved those problems.

Poorly, IMHO. I've watched users struggle.

>   There may be a
> few blind folks out there who would make use of a special browser for
> blind people, but probably not as many as you seem to think.  If you
> don't believe me, go talk to the folks who wrote webspeak.

So, fine. If we don't do a good enough job, we'll fail. What skin is it
off your back? Whether we succeeded or failed, it would not hurt you --
or Lynx -- or anyone else one bit. So, the only reason to withhold the
code is spite.

> The last
> thing blind folks need is one more programmer or group of programmers
> who think they are going to balance their check books on the backs  of
> blind folks.

You apparently have bought into Richard Stallman's delusion that anyone
who programs for money expects to (or will) get rich. Well, I have
news for you: NO ONE is making much money off of accessibility software.
We'd merely like to be able to keep the gas turned on, thank you very much.

> In short, the gnu license is a reality, and you'll just have to live
> with it, or not.  Complaining about it on this list, or other lists
> related to gnu software probably won't generate much sympathy for your
> cause.

Perhaps when good software does NOT appear, people will wonder why. And
the answer will be that nobody fed the programmer.

>   If you are looking for something to develope and get paid for,
> I'd suggest you do a little market research on your ideas, and then find
> some venture capital to back you.  If they won't, then that's the way
> the world turns.

They won't -- and for good reason. No money there. You should be grateful
that we'd even try.

--Brett Glass