July 31, 2011 at 04:37Emacs violated the GPL since 2009
The Emacs editor , the GNU flagship product, and Richard Stallman's most famous development, as it turned out, violated the GPL license from 09/28/2009, when the distribution of binaries without source codes began with the program.
This is a CEDET package for analyzing static code. Versions of Emacs 23.2 and 23.3 contained parsers created by the bison grammar program without the use of corresponding grammars. Technically, these parsers themselves can be considered source code (they are compiled and suitable for human reading), although in fact they are not - apparently, because of this, there was a confusion in the interpretation of the terms of the GPL license. Only the most principled people like Richard Stallman can lament over such a “violation”.
“We made a very serious mistake,” wrote Richard Stallman on the emacs-devel mailing list. - Everyone who distributed these versions of Emacs violated the GPL through no fault of their own. We need to fix these releases retrospectively (or remove them), and we need to do this immediately. “I see two quick ways to fix releases: delete compiled files or add source codes for them.”
Emacs developers do not know where the CEDET sources disappeared, they have already begun the search . Richard Stallman himself has not been involved in the development of Emacs since 2008.
This is a CEDET package for analyzing static code. Versions of Emacs 23.2 and 23.3 contained parsers created by the bison grammar program without the use of corresponding grammars. Technically, these parsers themselves can be considered source code (they are compiled and suitable for human reading), although in fact they are not - apparently, because of this, there was a confusion in the interpretation of the terms of the GPL license. Only the most principled people like Richard Stallman can lament over such a “violation”.
“We made a very serious mistake,” wrote Richard Stallman on the emacs-devel mailing list. - Everyone who distributed these versions of Emacs violated the GPL through no fault of their own. We need to fix these releases retrospectively (or remove them), and we need to do this immediately. “I see two quick ways to fix releases: delete compiled files or add source codes for them.”
Emacs developers do not know where the CEDET sources disappeared, they have already begun the search . Richard Stallman himself has not been involved in the development of Emacs since 2008.