Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 10:00:33 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: "Jasper O'Malley" <jooji@webnology.com>, Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@flood.ping.uio.no> Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, "Pedro F. Giffuni" <pfgiffun@bachue.usc.unal.edu.co>, Gregory Sutter <gsutter@pobox.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GPL *again* (was: New CODA release) Message-ID: <4.1.19990208095441.00c43100@mail.lariat.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.02.9902080914570.11830-100000@mercury.webnology .com> References: <xzpww1tlyt5.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>
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At 09:21 AM 2/8/99 -0600, Jasper O'Malley wrote: >[The GPL] says, "if you've got a piece of software that's got 90% >or my code in it and 10% of yours, you can't sell it unless you make the >source code available." Or ONE LINE of my code in it and all the rest is yours. >I'm honestly no fan of the GPL, you must believe me, but, playing Devil's >Advocate, if the base product weren't that valuable to you, you wouldn't >use it. Again, as Devil's Advocate, what I see here are people demanding >that you give away your code completely free if you're going to give it >away at all. To that, the GPLer would say, "Don't like the terms under >which I give away my software? Fine, don't use it." The "GPLer" (Interesting term!) may not realize the broader effects of licensing code under the GPL. They extend much farther than his or her personal desire to be paid when someone else makes good! Also, that person may not realize that the odds of being paid are slim to none, because it's a poor business proposition to pay to license GPLed code. Think about it. The market value of GPLed code -- that is, the amount that a customer is willing to pay for its functionality -- is zero, because it can be had for free. For a developer to pay more than zero to achieve functionality that has zero market value is a losing proposition. (Some GPL authors, by the way, won't license their code at any price -- and the existence of multiple authors, not all of whom can be identified, usually makes licensing infeasible.) The developer who wants to use GPLed code is shafted from the start! This is as RMS intended, though it is may not be obvious until one thinks it through from that viewpoint. >And this is the *real* danger. I have no problems if individuals slap the >GPL on their work. Again, if it's not useful to me, I simply won't use it; >likewise, if I can't accept the licensing terms, I won't use it. That's not the real danger. The real danger is the harm that's done to innovation and to programmers' livelihoods. >When you get large groups of people slapping the GPL on their work because >they think that's what you do with open source software, you have a >problem, because none of those people have considered the greater >implications of the license. Very true! --Brett "Rules? This is the Internet." -- Dan Gillmor To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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