Curtis Olson wrote: > Someone just directed me to the following ebay vendor selling FlightGear. > > http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Realistic-Professional-Aviation-Flight-Simulator_W0QQitemZ260053619883QQihZ016QQcategoryZ80336QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem > > At first glance I thought, no big deal, just another person selling a > distribution of FlightGear. But wait a second: this person is selling > it as a "digital download". So they are charging people money for the > right to download flightgear, when they could just as easily (well a > lot more easily) download it for free. > > The more I think about it, the more I have a problem with this. If > they were selling FlightGear on CD, or on floppies, or on reels of > tape, or punch cards, or even printed versions of the source code, I > would have absolutely no problem. That is specifically allowed for in > the GPL, and the vendor can set whatever price they want. > > But here they are not selling anything. Can we call what they are > selling a distribution? The rights to download something that is > already available for free download? > > So my questions: > > 1. Am I right to be concerned about this? > > 2. Is there any outright GPL violation going on here? > > 3. If there is a GPL violation, how should we go about addressing it > (and legitimate, legal methods only please.) > > Thanks,
Interesting question... There is another ebay type out here in Murietta, CA doing the same thing I saw the other day. What caught my eye was one of the screen shots we posted showing the OTW of the 747 sim over Oakland. It was like "where have I seen that before and how did it wind up on ebay???" Some of the claims are a bit misleading by the seller; e.g the shot of the photo-realistic approach into San Jose. It looks like some of the text and material was lifted directly from the website, pics and all. I guess if some folks are foolish enough to fall for such a scheme we can't prevent stupidity. There were several instances of the "article' for sale but I don't recall any serious bidders; bids I saw were stuck at $0.99 and number of bidders was at 0. Rather than any legal steps, perhaps posting a few messages advising bidders that the software is free and can be down loaded at the FG website or any number of mirrors might put an end to it all. Legal steps cost money and no guarantees. Plus this bloke is in Australia. And this is listed as a "digital item" and the ebay definition is worth looking at. Pony up the bucks and you might get the FlightGear URL as the place to go for the download. P T Barnum is alive and well in the 21st Century Regards John W. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
