TG: "blatant falsehoods and sinister insinuations"

[Andre Poenitz]

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 02:52:30PM -0700, William Stein wrote:
> > I heard such a rumour, but I refused to believe it; Microsoft's money
> > has dictated what license a project previously known to be free (as in
> > freedom) will use.[...]
> > There is a contract between Microsoft and SAGE stipulating that SAGE
> > stay GPL 2.  Do you deny this?"
> 
> Just so you know, yes, we can flatly deny that.  There is *no* contract
> between Microsoft and Sage.  Microsoft Research gave us funding
> as an unrestricted gift, and mentioned to us that they can't use anything
> we give them if it contains GPLv3+ code.  Out of respect we intend
> to deliver a version of Sage to them that contains no GPLv3+ code.

Just to make sure that I do not laugh at the wrong time: "They give 
you funding as an unrestricted gift" and only "out of respect" you
"deliver a version"? Is that what you just wrote?

This somewhat reminds me of the process that gets me apples from the
supermarket: They obviously just give me the apples as an unrestricted
gift, but out of sheer respect (e.g. of the policies and the local
courts...) I deliver them a certain gift in return.

Of course, we never use the term 'payment' in that process. We rather
use 'Hi!', and some numbers (that alone should make this mail here
on-topic...), and 'Thanks.', and 'Bye!'...

Andre', hiding under his stone again.

PS: Is there a gmp-flame at swox or gmp-weekend-entertainment list
somewhere? If so I'd redirect the discussion ;-)