On 16 Feb 2013, at 20:14, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote: On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 7:56 PM, Cory Smelosky <b4 at gewt.net> wrote: The GNU project would never borrow userspace code. Careful here -- a lot of the original Gnu code was borrowed. Gnu Emacs was a rewrite Goslings (CMU) Emacs. gdb was based on Mark Linton's pdx/dbx from Berkeley. The Gnu dialector is based on something I wrote at UCB and that Dan Klein would rewrite (we do get credit). I was just restating what some of the vocal proponents often proclaim. Glad you did actually get credit, what license was your stuff released under? Simply, there is a bunch of the Gnu original code that has hazy provenance. Sadly, I have been part of the some the torts associated with some of these. But no one should try to say they are holier than anyone else. I based my comment on how they always go on about how they're going for "freedom" and "clean-room implementations" It doesn't surprise me at all that they can be rather two-faced. That said, my experience is that by the 1990s the Gnu project was better about understanding provenance, but in the 1970s and 1980s, they took what ever they could get. I would agree there. I was referring to the current FSF-lead RMS army, not the older project. Clem