Legality Status of Thomas Roell's X11R4 server

[Tom Friedel]

roell at informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Thomas Roell) writes:

>(this letter might boar you, but I think this letter should be open, so 
>everybody can read it, and thing about it)

>>No, here is why posted, and I debated about it for several weeks, and I
>>consulted with a few poeple here on the net. If I did the wrong thing I am
>>truly sorry.  I appreciate your bringing the issue into the open.

>Why didn't you talk with me ?????

Well, I did.  You referred to my letter yourself.  As this I think is very
important the sequence of events was: I posted question to comp.sources.x,
you told me about source, I mentioned I was an X programmer and how unfair 
I thought this was in a letter to you.  I never heard anything and much 
later I decided to post  this note for the reason(s) in the the letter you 
are quoting.  I had assumed that you would have tried to clarify such a
grave issue then, but I perhaps should have mailed to you again.

I then cancelled this posting 12 hours later, not because I felt I 
had done the wrong thing, but because I found I really wasn't
prepared for the controversy this might cause, and wasn't sure that you
were either.

Most people would have seen only your posting stating the legality of 
the server, and not my posting, and not thought much more about it.

>
> ... long explanation about the ldterm module.

I will accept this because you say it is so. Perhaps it is your English, 
but your earlier letter indicated differently.

> ... lost of stuff about the programming ascpect of his project.

What Tom has done with VGA cards is indeed quite amazing.

>This was my BIG mistake! Because you helped me earlier with a bugfix, I thought
>it would be fair to give away some of my knowledge to you. (In February I
>a guy sent me some patches - I should treat them as confidental - and I remeber
>that his name was Tom Fridel. Maybe I remeber something wrong ?)

I don't recall this.   Unless I did not recognize it was you way back in Feb.

>I'm very sorry that I said these hard words. But I was reported that you 

>me that you would do anything to drop my server (this was also influenced be
>the rought tone in your letter). Please forgive me that I get you wrong.

Those few who read my post might judge for themselves.   I just want to 
reiterate that I did not make this post lightly  or without several weeks
of thought and consultation, and that it was the only posting I was planning
to make on the subject.   Thomas is obviously quite a gentleman in giving me
so much the benefit of the doubt.

>But there is a last question I have for you: As I read in the annoucement of
>your product, you used GCC and GDB for developing this.

>	You used FREE SOFTWARE !!!!!!

But I am not sure I see the point here.  My objection was not that the software
was free.

tom