Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 08:38:22 -0600 (CST) From: "Jasper O'Malley" <jooji@webnology.com> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> 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: <Pine.LNX.4.02.9902080826290.11012-100000@mercury.webnology.com> In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990207230639.009284c0@mail.lariat.org>
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On Sun, 7 Feb 1999, Brett Glass wrote:
> As for why the GPL is bad for business: it treats business unfairly.
> Users can use GPLed software to serve THEIR needs, but commercial
> software companies can't use it to fulfill THEIRS. That's the
> intent: to drive commercial software companies out of business.
That might be RMS' intent, but it sure as hell isn't the intent of most
people I know that have GPLed their software. Don't cloud the issue with
rhetoric, Brett. At least in my experience, people GPL their software
because they have a fundamental desire to keep other people from profiting
from their freely given work. I can completely understand how someone
would GPL their work for reasons like this, just as I understand how
others (myself included) would put a BSD license on software to stimulate
commercial interest in a project.
> One way it does this is to drive the market value of a product
> with a given feature set to zero, while keeping its cost to
> commercial software vendors (either in development or licensing costs)
> high.
So it remains a completely public development effort, rather than a
commercial development effort, or a commercial-public effort. It's not
evil, my man, simply different. Will it stunt the growth of some projects?
Will it fragment others? Maybe. But when a BSD-licensed chunk of code is
used by a company, there's no guarantee that they'll contribute back to
the community from whence the code came, either. There's no silver bullet
here, Brett.
> Free software can and does take away business opportunities. But the
> BSD license, unlike the GPL, "gives back" by allowing commercial
> software companies to build on the code and add value without
> forfeiting the money they could make from their labor.
Yes, but realize there that people who use the BSD license are making a
rational decision to give away valuable work. People who use GPL simply
don't want anyone else to take their valuable, freely-given work, close
the development, add proprietary extensions, and make gobs of money.
Selfish? Maybe, but it's their choice, because they wrote the software.
I don't use the GPL now (although I have) because it does, as you point
out, have the potential to stunt development efforts in some projects, but
again, it's the author's choice, just as it is your choice whether or not
you'd like to use a GPLed work as a basis for your own new software
projects.
Cheers,
Mick
The Reverend Jasper P. O'Malley dotdot:jooji@webnology.com
Systems Administrator ringring:asktheadmiral
Webnology, LLC woowoo:http://www.webnology.com/~jooji
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