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From: fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk (Donal K. Fellows)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: GPL (was Re: Linux vs FreeBSD)
Date: 15 Dec 1995 13:27:23 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.
Lines: 49
Distribution: comp
Message-ID: <4art3r$2ap@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>
References: <489kuu$rbo@pelican.cs.ucla.edu> <4ahtib$ckq@helena.mt.net> <4alpl5$a39@klaava.helsinki.fi> <4an3hq$r6l@helena.mt.net>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:30356 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10471
In article <4an3hq$r6l@helena.mt.net>,
Nate Williams <nate@sneezy.sri.com> wrote:
> In article <4alpl5$a39@klaava.helsinki.fi>,
> Linus Torvalds <torvalds@cc.Helsinki.FI> wrote:
>> Now, nobody in his right mind uses floppies for software distribution
>> any more, so I don't really see the reason for whining about the size of
>> sources. You can easily fit sources on a CD (or two - CD costs can't be
>> high if people actually make money off selling 4-CD distributions for
>> $25 USD). And that releases you of all future obligations..
>
> *IF* you're a CD rom manufacturer and/or a software house that sells
> thousands of copies of software I'd agree with you, but if you're a
> small software house you'd be lucky to sell 1000 copies. Doing
> one-off's require that buy a *LOT* of hardware ($$), or, you could
> have a CD house build you (minimum of 1000 copies) a CD and sell
> that to your customer. Either way you've got to recover those costs
> somehow, and those costs are significant.
But the GPL _does_ allow you to recover those costs. It merely forbids
you to deny access to the sources, and it allows someone else with the
sources to distribute them on to a third party (which tends to cut the
quantity of profit you can make out of providing the sources :^)
Thus, you could charge someone for getting one of these fancy writable
CDROM drives, and this is a justifiable charge if there are no other
suitable methods of giving them the sources.
> When the distribution costs of your software start to eat into your
> bottom line it *is* an issue, so your software costs more to sell
> which makes it less appealing to the end-user. In the long run, if
> I re-write the software from scratch I save alot of money in
> distribution costs in the long run.
>
> (That, or I use non-GPL software that I can use w/out the
> 'encumberance' of software distribution, such as BSD copyrighted
> software. *grin*)
It seems to me (on an admittedly quick reading) that you have
misunderstood parts of the GPL (like many other people :^)
Donal.
--
Donal K. Fellows, (at work) | Donal K. Fellows, (at home)
Dept. of Computer Science, | 6, Randall Place, Heaton,
University of Manchester | Bradford, BD9 4AE
U.K. Tel: ++44-161-275-6137 | U.K. Tel: ++44-1274-401017
fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk (preferred) | donal@ugglan.demon.co.uk (if you must)
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