Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on April 23, 2002 09:07 PM
Pardon my ignorance, but why don't organizations centered around GPL like licensed software, (like linux, openoffice or wine) alter the GPL license so as to give companies and programmers financial motivation to work and contribute to the code? For example, the organizations can at some stage charge a small fee for the use of the software...
The GPL does not require you to give your software away... you can charge whatever you want to your customers, and you only have to give source to code your customers. There is no requirement to allow free downloads for anybody on the Net. What the GPL does do, however, is allow your customer to use your software and source as they choose, with the requirement that any customers of theirs must receive the source, as well, so that the software cannot be held hostage by a single company.
The whole purpose of the GPL is NOT to de-capitalize the industry. Its main purpose is to keep large companies from taking open standards and adding non-compatible proprietary "extensions" for their own purpose. It's the classic "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" tactic used by AT&T, MS, IBM, etc. Microsoft has made a career on this, and that's why the GPL has them frightened.
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Re:an idea?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on April 23, 2002 09:07 PMThe GPL does not require you to give your software away... you can charge whatever you want to your customers, and you only have to give source to code your customers. There is no requirement to allow free downloads for anybody on the Net. What the GPL does do, however, is allow your customer to use your software and source as they choose, with the requirement that any customers of theirs must receive the source, as well, so that the software cannot be held hostage by a single company.
The whole purpose of the GPL is NOT to de-capitalize the industry. Its main purpose is to keep large companies from taking open standards and adding non-compatible proprietary "extensions" for their own purpose. It's the classic "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" tactic used by AT&T, MS, IBM, etc. Microsoft has made a career on this, and that's why the GPL has them frightened.
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