[Insight-developers] [vtk-developers] Scope of VTK and it's potential as a common research language

[Luis Ibanez]

Benoit,


The fear for a "proprietary fork" is an indication that
a community have not yet embraced the essence of
Open Source:


                           " Letting Go..."


          Renounce the Evil impulse to control
          what users do with the software.

          Let them be.

          That's true Freedom.

          Share the software just for the
          sake of sharing it.


In order to Share you must overcome your fears.

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                   Mathematical Libraries
         should NOT EVEN be Copyrighted.


       They MUST be in the Public Domain (**)


They are too essential for technological development,
for being controlled by a small number of individuals.


Come on people !!

We are not talking about the Higgs Boson here,
we are talking about simple :   Linear Algebra !!!


Why are we taxing society with having to ask for permission
to a small group of individuals in order to make a pitiful
Singular Value Decomposition. !!!


(**) For those who may have forgotten, there is this thing
called "THE PUBLIC DOMAIN". It is the Heavenly place
where Copyrighted materials are intended to go at the
expiration of the limited-time Government-awarded Monopoly
granted by Copyright  Laws.  (Yes, in the US this is 70 years
after the death of the authors...)


It is also the place where software written by US Government
agencies go directly.


The Public Domain is a HAPPY place, with NO RULES,
NO RESTRICTIONS, and NO absurd discussions on
licensing and permissions.


Euclidean Geometry is there,
Calculus is there,
Linear Algebra is there.


    Nobody should "own" Mathematics,
    Nobody should "own" Mathematical Libraries.


Even for the apparently limited ~100 years
allocated by Copyright Laws.


                     Ask any Economist.


The limited-time, Government-awarded monopolies of
Copyrights and Patents, increase the transaction costs
of the Economy, obstruct competition, and prevent the
effectiveness of a Market Economy.

Such monopolies should only be granted when their
benefit is larger than the cost they impose to an economy
and the embarrassment the impose to society.

 That's certainly NOT the case for basic Linear Algebra.


NOBODY should have the Exclusive Right to tell you
what you can and what you can't do with a Matrix
decomposition.


              Let's Liberate Mathematics,


   Let's lobby NSF for funding the development
   of a Public Domain mathematical library.



        Luis



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On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 10:55 AM, Benoit Jacob <jacob.benoit.1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Bill, thanks for letting me know. To summarize, my position is that in
> the case of Eigen, the LGPL is equivalent to BSD + interdiction of
> proprietary forks. If there is such a thing as a short and concise
> "BSD + interdiction of proprietary forks" licence, I'll gladly propose
> other Eigen devs to add it as an option. I'm glad if this thread is
> helpful to ITK developers. The decisions are now yours / theirs :)
>
> Benoit
>