"
As hacks go, the GPL stands as one of Stallman's best.
It created a system of communal ownership within the
normally proprietary confines of copyright law. More
importantly, it demonstrated the intellectual
similarity between legal code and software code.
Implicit within the GPL's preamble was a profound
message: instead of viewing copyright law with
suspicion, hackers should view it as yet another system
begging to be hacked.
"The GPL developed much like any piece of free software
with a large community discussing its structure, its
respect or the opposite in their observation, needs for
tweaking and even to compromise it mildly for greater
acceptance," says Jerry Cohen, another attorney who
helped Stallman with the creation of the license. "The
process worked very well and GPL in its several
versions has gone from widespread skeptical and at
times hostile response to widespread acceptance."
In a 1986 interview with Byte magazine, Stallman summed
up the GPL in colorful terms. In addition to
proclaiming hacker values, Stallman said, readers
should also "see it as a form of intellectual jujitsu,
using the legal system that software hoarders have set
up against them.
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