All other issues aside, CDBI is safe. Tony's quite happily looking forward to working on 1.0 and it will go to CPAN. Continue using it.
Tony hasn't gone completely bonkers. There's legal messiness he can't really talk about, but there is an underlying logic.
Sorry. I know you and I disagree about this, but it has to be reiterated. Many people are no longer going to trust Tony's judgment. It doesn't matter if CDBI is OK if we're afraid the author's going to threaten us with legal action, take down the mailing lists, or that others are going to fork CDBI to avoid these problems.
Tony should either fall on his sword and turn this module over or figure out some way of winning back the trust of his users (and I can't imagine any way that he could short of keeping his head down for the next few years.) Right now, I'm very hard-pressed to think of any way I could recommend CDBI.
That Confuses Me
chromatic on 2005-08-02T18:08:49
Why should I be afraid that anyone would threaten me with legal action for using software according to the license? If I were libelling someone or publishing copyrighted information without permission, that's one thing -- but using the software? I don't understand the concern.
Re:That Confuses Me
itub on 2005-08-02T19:28:00
The problem is that Tony doesn't seem to be acting rationally, so people don't know what to expect. It's encouraging to hear that "there is an underlying logic", but I still cannot fathom it.Re:That Confuses Me
jdavidb on 2005-08-02T20:10:03
I don't know how rationally he's acting, but I don't fear being threatened with legal action when I've done nothing wrong.
Re:That Confuses Me
jk2addict on 2005-08-02T20:41:09
I don't know how rationally he's acting, but I don't fear being threatened with legal action when I've done nothing wrong.You must be new to this country.
:-) Re:That Confuses Me
pudge on 2005-08-09T17:51:30
Yes, but no one libelled Tony, nor illegally reprinted copyrighted information. And yet he still threatened.Re:No
hfb on 2005-08-02T21:17:27
I'm confused over what all the big stink is about, but maybe it's my age that makes me just not give a shit about yet another conflict of personalities in a community where there is little left but that. I never thought ESR was sane but that never kept me from using fetchmail way back when.Re:No
ziggy on 2005-08-03T04:23:54
Sorry, Ovid, but that's FUD.Sure, Schwern is just spouting feel-good anti-FUD, but the answer to that isn't to respond with FUD. The answer is to take the most appropriate course of action to your situation.
Perhaps you'll be exceedingly risk-averse and stop using CDBI. That's fine, because you're choosing to be risk-averse. Perhaps the sanest course of action for your particular circumstances is to do nothing and wait until this mess sorts itself out. In any case, I fail to see the logic behind your rhetoric, that the best thing anyone can do is for "Tony to fall on his [proverbial] sword".
Fact is, nothing has changed, really. There's still a nonzero possibility anyone could get sued for anything, and a high probability that any of those possible lawsuits are mere posturing, serving to enrich the petitioner's lawyer (who sagely advises that you really shouldn't sue Mr. Incredible when he threw you out of a 12th floor window when he caught you in the act of a grand larceny) and highlight the petitioner's childishness. The incident in 2000 when some wingnut of a 300lb electrician threatened to either sit on Uri or sue him (or both, in an unspecified order) comes to mind.
This site was unavailable for a few days in an attempt to prevent it being replicated it elsewhere. Sorry about that. Hopefully we can get on now with a proper handover.
