Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 14:49:12 -0400 From: Nathan Dorfman <nathan@rtfm.net> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: unknown@riverstyx.net, spork <spork@super-g.com>, James Howard <howardjp@wam.umd.edu>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Free VMWare and open BIOS! Message-ID: <19990527144911.A8231@rtfm.net> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.37.19990527095144.00b7a320@localhost>; from Brett Glass on Thu, May 27, 1999 at 09:55:29AM -0600 References: <4.2.0.37.19990520145111.044f4ab0@localhost> <4.2.0.37.19990519171814.045d9c80@localhost> <Pine.LNX.4.04.9905201222220.9897-100000@hades.riverstyx.ne <4.2.0.37.19990520145111.044f4ab0@localhost> <19990526122522.A26225@rtfm.net> <4.2.0.37.19990527095144.00b7a320@localhost>
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On Thu, May 27, 1999 at 09:55:29AM -0600, Brett Glass wrote: > At 12:25 PM 5/26/99 -0400, Nathan Dorfman wrote: > > >How do you figure? They're not giving away what you're trying to sell. > >They're giving away their own code. > > Not so. It's a classic predatory pricing tactic: destroy the market for > a business's product. > > Note also that those who publish under the GPL are not "giving away" > their code; commercial developers can't incorporate it. Rather, they're > giving free use of it to those developers' CUSTOMERS, which kills the > market, while locking the developers themselves out. The EXPRESS purpose > of this tactic is to kill commercial developers. Why should the commercial developer be automagically entitled to use the free software's code? The free software was not based on the commercial code, it is original code. That's like saying that the express purpose of Linux is to take away market from AT&T -- they create more or less clone of the Unix kernel and license it under the GPL, which doesn't allow AT&T to use the Linux source in their product. Why is this unfair? AT&T never let Linux use their proprietary source code. What about FreeBSD? AT&T could have used FreeBSD code in their commercial product. How does this make anything more fair? Unless of course, you're AT&T and are worried about some competition. Hmm... > --Brett Glass -- Nathan Dorfman <nathan@rtfm.net> The statements and opinions in my Unix Admin @ Frontline Communications public posts are mine, not FCC's. "The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an approaching train." --/usr/games/fortune To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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