[ILUG] open source article

[Kenn Humborg]

On Mon, Mar 13, 2000 at 10:19:29PM +0000, David Murphy wrote:
> Quoting <20000313205916.A14247 at avalon.no46.wombat.ie>
> by Kenn Humborg <kenn at linux.ie>:
> 
> > I.e., it's perfectly legal for you to take a GPL program, add a
> > feature and sell CDs of the improved program for $10000 as long as
> > you publish the changes you made to the source code. In practice,
> > this doesn't happen very much, because your competitor down the
> > street is able to get your changes and sell exactly the same thing
> > for whatever he chooses.
> 
> So, effectively, there's no money to be made in GPL software. Note
> carefully that I say "GPL software", by which I mean copies of or
> per-user/per-machine licences to use GPL software. I do not mean
> consultancy on the selection, deployment, or tailoring of GPL
> software. I do not mean training on the use of GPL software. I do not
> mean hardware bundled with GPL software that enables one to ues the
> hardware. Those are all ways to make money using GPL software, 

Agreed.  I was just pointing out some errors in John's interpretation 
of the GPL.

> 
> [ESR]
> > Take away the freedom to distribute your fixes and improvements and
> > most of the incentives to contribute go away.
> 
> True, but that is a freedom provided by many licences, of which the
> GPL is only one.

And therein starts a religious war...  :-)

Later,
Kenn