Public open specs

[Dalibor Topic]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Dalibor Topic wrote:
>   
>> I'm curious since I know that GPLd implementations of JSRs have been
>> around as long as JBoss
>> (a division of Red Hat) was, so I have trouble figuring out how both
>> JBoss and your claim can coexist,
>> figuratively speaking.
>>     
>
> There's a difference between an implementation that /happens/ to conform
> to a spec (which can be accomplished by reverse-engineering) in which
> case the spec's terms are irrelevant, and a implementation that is based
> on /reading/ the spec, in which case the terms are essential.
>   
Given that most GPLd implementation of JSRs are done by people who sit
on the expert groups of the same JSRs
and help write the specs (JBoss, Red Hat, Sun, ObjectWeb, etc.), I don't
think the distinction you're trying to make
matters, unless they are all writing the specs without reading them.

That doesn't seem to be very plausible to me.
> It is also possible that other developers violated the JSR terms, but
> obviously that isn't wise.
In face of one person claiming A, and many others successfully doing !A
for the last couple of years,
I'd regard A to be an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary
proof, like say a lawyerly scholar's analysis.

Speculation that the many others were wrong with the !A claim despite
evidence to the contrary seems to me to fail
Occam's razor - the more plausible, simpler explanation is that claim A
is not as correct as it may initially seem.

cheers,
dalibor topic

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