[Tim Potter <tpot@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 06:18:58PM +1030, Richard Sharpe wrote:

> > Ethereal is a very popular decoder that can only benefit from being able to
> > decode proprietary protocols giving it another powerful and distinct advantage
> > over commercial decoders. 
> > 
> > I welcome your comments as well as other alternatives I may not have
> > considered. Thanks,
> 
> I for one would welcome this as a way for Ethereal to maintain and expand 
> it position as the premier packet analysis tool in the the world today.
> 
> It removes any obstacles to vendors of propietary protocols from releasing 
> plugins for Ethereal.

A question no-one has asked yet is why was ethereal licensed with the
GPL in the first place?  I would like to think that choosing a license
for a piece of software is a decision that a lot of thought has been put
in to.  To me it is a philosophical decision.

To simplify things a bit (OK a lot), I might take the stance that if you 
aren't going to share with me then I'm not going to share with you in which
case I would make my software GPL.  If I didn't care what people did
with my software as long as they respected the original copyright then I
might go BSD.  

Do binary only dissectors go against the vision the original authors of 
Ethereal had?  Perhaps Gerald can answer this.


Tim.