No one is proposing a license key or anything like that.
The main alternative to GPL
is to let anyone use it for any purpose, free.
The GPL is a restriction. It prevents people from distributing
the documentation unless the other material in the
distribution is also free/open-source etc. That means
in particular that someone who wants to use GPL maxima in
a product cannot do so unless that product is also free and open source.
So a person who does not want to distribute their source code, or may even
have an idea of how to make money selling an application,
must use Maple or Mathematica. This decreases the Maxima
community, and so I think that the GPL is a mistake. There is
an alternative "LLGPL" that is more flexible.
The more open license like the creative commons license
or modified BSD means that anyone can use the material for anything.
RJF
Jorge Barros de Abreu wrote:
> If Maxima is GPL then the manual portuguese translation also is licensed under
> GPL. If anything is a secret do not put it on the internet. :-)
>
> My personal idea when the translation portuguese was begining was that the
> translation do not died with me and to be used for many students located on a
> poor region of the some portuguese language country in africa and asia. I do
> not want that this students need a licence number
> to use the translation. I do not want that the translation work only in a
> computer with authorized key in his processor.
>
> I only work under GPL ( or license-like ) program like user and like
> developer.
>
> []'s
>
> Em Sun 18 Dec 2005 13:31, Mario Rodriguez escreveu:
>
>>At least this is what the header says every time you run Maxima:
>>
>>'Distributed under the GNU Public License. See the file COPYING.'
>>
>>On the other hand, you can read the letter sent by The DOE to Schelter:
>>
>>'We have enclosed a current list of countries which are considered
>>_sensitive_ and require approval through DOE Headquarters....'
>>
>>I am not sure this two texts to be compatible.
>>
>>Don't smile but,
>>does anybody know if Spain is in this list?
>>
>>Best wishes.
>
>