Re: org.omg link on Classpath homepage

[Stuart Ballard]

Brian Jones wrote:
> This sort of religious zealotry is not helpful.  People wishing to
> implement free versions should know where to go for the standard, the
> RFC, etc.  If it is not possible to link in this context then the FSF
> web server is useless and I'll have to consider moving
> http://www.classpath.org/ elsewhere.

First off, I have nothing to do with the GNU project so these opinions 
are only my own attempt to understand the GNU project's position and 
apply common sense to the result.

Having said that, I don't think there's any objection to linking to the 
RFC per se or pointing to the OMG as the place where the standard is 
developed. The objection is to linking to either those places or any 
others and saying "you can get an implementation from here", if the 
implementation in question is not free.

The distinction is based on context - does the link seem to someone 
reading the website to be a link to get software, or a link to find out 
more about something? In the case of the OMG and jgss links on 
www.classpath.org, the links appeared to me to be clearly "get software" 
links, hence the (double) problem with the omg and jgss links: neither 
of them actually were any help in figuring out where to obtain software, 
and even if they had been, the software in question is not free.

It would be fine (if my interpretation is correct) to simply alter the 
website so that it's clear that these links go to information related to 
standardization of these packages, and not an implementation. But it 
seems to me that information about standardization of packages we 
haven't yet implemented isn't something that belongs on the Classpath 
homepage anyway, so it makes more sense to simply remove the links or 
replace them with links to implementations that really are free.

(Incidentally, my understanding is that this restriction is not limited 
to projects using the GNU webserver - it's limited to any project which 
is "part of the GNU project", which in practical terms includes at least 
any program with "GNU " at the start of its name. On the other hand, 
non-gnu projects are allowed to use the FSF webserver (see 
http://savannah.nongnu.org) and those projects ARE allowed to link to 
non-free software, although they aren't allowed to depend on it).

Stuart.

--
Stuart Ballard, Senior Web Developer
FASTNET - Web Solutions
(215) 283-2300, ext. 126
www.fast.net