From owner-freebsd-newbies Sun Feb 21 12:22:16 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from castor2.freiepresse.de (castor2.freiepresse.de [194.25.232.30]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B31F1101F for ; Sun, 21 Feb 1999 12:22:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net) Received: from speedy.gsinet (ppp-pln169.freiepresse.de [194.25.234.169]) by castor2.freiepresse.de (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id VAA14845 for ; Sun, 21 Feb 1999 21:20:14 +0100 (MET) Received: from speedy.gsinet (sittig@speedy.gsinet [192.168.10.129]) by speedy.gsinet (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id SAA01871 for ; Sun, 21 Feb 1999 18:36:20 +0100 Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 18:36:20 +0100 (CET) From: Gerhard Sittig X-Sender: sittig@speedy.gsinet Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Very Common Question In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sat, 20 Feb 1999, K. Marsh wrote: > > [ ... discussion on GPL vs BSD license ... ] > > The point I was trying to make was that you can't sell your software for > profit, UNLESS you distribute the source code too (thereby giving away > the secrets of your program.) This is right, isn't it Christ? FreeBSD's > license doesn't require you to give away your source. I feel this is too strong a view and it might not be correct since then NOONE would offer any software for these systems when he wants to make his living from it. The only thing one could "sell" would be service and consulting. But there IS comercial software around for Linux -- think of Applix, WordPerfect, Mathematica, StarOffice, Adabas, Sniff, Oracle, Netscape, ... (easily continued) I guess the main point is that when you use GPLed software as the basis (or core) of your product, then the product should be GPLed, too. And I think it's fair. None of the GPL authors ever stated "there should never be any software for Linux that's not free". To scream while replying to you I guess it should read: You CAN sell YOUR software for profit WITHOUT distributing the source code too, but once you use other people's work AND they stated "this should always be free" you're NOT allowed to sell modifications and cover or hide the result. Of course you may build your own internal tools based on GPLed software (anyone is free not to release his additions :), but you might not sell those modifications and thereby betraying the original contributors. But after all IANAL and anyone being really interested could read the GPL itself, it's shipped with many software packages and I'm sure it is on FSF's website, too. Please keep in mind that English is not my natural language and that all the typos and errors in this message are mine. I just speak for myself and that's enough trouble ... :> Gerhard Sittig -- If you don't understand or are scared by any of the above ask your parents or an adult to help you. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message