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From: Holger Veit <veit@gmd.de>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: GPL
Date: 1 Feb 1997 15:44:56 GMT
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Lines: 59
Message-ID: <5cvodo$hme@omega.gmd.de>
References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <32ED1866.34F02393@indiana.edu> <5cl66d$l52@web.nmti.com> <5cmiuu$iud@garuda.synet.net> <5cokgi$alm@web.nmti.com> <L3U8y0gTz/TM091yn@ibm.net> <32F167BB.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> <0rnuc5.3e1.ln@zen>
Reply-To: Holger.Veit@gmd.de
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In comp.os.os2.advocacy Robert Brockway <robert@humbug.org.au> wrote:
: John S. Dyson (dyson@freebsd.org) wrote:
: : > Too bad for them, because plenty of money can be made by giving code
: : > away and selling professional services to support it.
: : >
: : Works great for BSD also. In fact, lots of money is being made selling
: : GPLed code also, in the guise of support. Of course, you need the
: : support to get the code... :-). (That is counter to the intent of GPL,
: ??? The GPL says that your can't attempt to stop redistribution of
: binaries or source under the license. So how can you say that you need
: the support to get the code?
Dream on. What's happening to me was the following: there is a company
which has made a port of gcc to some embedded controller. They want
DEM 3000 for a service contract and then give you binaries and sources
of this port "as an addition". When you ask them "GPL and free software,
and blurb, and blah, I would like to have the *free GPL'd* software" they'll
tell you: we are not a software company, we sell consulting for that
embedded controller, and some port of the gcc is just a courtesy, and
no, you won't get the gcc, you can buy support...circle,circle,circle.
Point is with software, that you may write it, but noone can force you
to give it to everybody coming along, even if it is GPL. I am going to
write my own code in my own chamber, and put a GPL label on it, because
I think the CopyLeft header looks c00l, but this does not make it
automatically public domain, so that you may request a copy from me.
: : and I would have some ethical problems with myself being in the
: : position of "selling" GPLed software in the guise of support.) Given
: Anyone can sell GPL'd s/w. But you can't attempt to stop redistribution.
: So no ethical problem at all. And as far as i am concerned selling
: support is perfectly valid (no, i don't do it for a living :-)
If some company (and this is probably mainly the customership for the above
mentioned tool) pays DEM 3000 for some software, they will care a shit
about some GPL - they won't re-distribute it to anyone (maybe even to their
competitors) for free (they didn't buy software, but "support", and before
they risk this "support" implicitly by giving away the software received
under the support contract, they'll simply behave as with any other
arbitrary commercial software product. And this is then the way how
the GPL idea of re-distribution is handled in real-world.
: : the license terms, I follow them, whether I think that they are
: : good for the industry or world or not.
: Both licenses seem to have a place in the world, as far as i am concerned.
: Why does this discussion flare up every few months?
Obviously, it is a religious issue.
--
Dr.-Ing. Holger Veit | INTERNET: Holger.Veit@gmd.de
| | / GMD - German National Research | Phone: (+49) 2241 14 2448 or 2039
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| | / Schloss Birlinghoven | XFree86/OS2 goes public!
| |/ D-53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany | V3.2 from ftp.xfree86.org
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