"Thufir Hawat" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
On Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:35:51 -0400, Rjack wrote:
"Free Software" is highly restrictive software and isn't
"free" at all. Permissive licensed open source code such as BSD licensed
programs do not carry any baggage related to being hauled into federal
court by a band of wild-eyed zealots who practice socialism in software
licensing as a religion.
Why not extend that argument to the conclusion: don't use any license at
all. Sqlite is public domain. You're free to develop public domain
software on your own. However, you're not likely to ever see a penny for
your efforts.
That is exactly correct. I think that is the essence of open source.
Anyone who needs a basic function in their own application should be free to
adopt one freely handed out by someone else. Since it is freely
distributed, there is absolutely no obligation. Anyone so proud of their
incremental innovation that improves the original that they want to brag to
the world is also free to publish their dependent work. Anyone who doesn't
see the value in such a publication or who hasn't made any such change would
naturally refrain from any disclosure.
The internet is full of sites and included articles describing this very
kind of software and many developers have taken advantage of such articles
to solve their own problems and to learn how to do a variety of things.
There seems to be enough disclosure by those who learn a little so as to
keep the ball rolling.
All this makes Stallman and the FSF appear to be a sort of dog in the
manger, denying access to those who might avail themselves of some learning
or avoid some rote efforts. I do not think that anyone who included any
such GPL solftware into their product could make any money from the effort
either, just as they could not from public domain software. There is
nothing that anyone trying to sell a product rather than give it away could
sell other than their own innovation since the original functionality is
still available to anyone at no charge. If I stole the code for FireFox and
used it unchanged in a new product that I called HoundDog, I would never
recover my costs of promoting it via license fees. I doubt that I would
ever sell a single copy. If I added some functions that made it more
valuable and likely to appeal to consumers, however, I could possibly
benefit, but, again, it is doubtful that anyone could really innovate
anything in this realm.
_______________________________________________
gnu-misc-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
