Am 17.02.2010 11:19, schrieb Bruno Lowagie: > That's not true. The Free Software Foundation has been discouraging the > use of the LGPL a long time ago: > http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html > The AGPL is compatible with GPLv3 and other AGPL libraries. The LGPL for > iText was becoming an anachronism. > So what? OpenOffice is one of the biggest free software projects and uses the LGPL (even version v3 now). ICEFaces (which we also use) uses the MPL although they do have a business model. Many other Java projects use the Apache license or even the BSD license.
> There are companies that have bought a license BEFORE the change from > LGPL to AGPL because they didn't think it was a good business model for > them to create a money making business that depended on software for > which they didn't pay. They don't experience any problems due to the > license change. > > Suppose that somebody starts up a business selling tweets from Twitter, > and then complain to the owners of Twitter if they limit the number of > tweet requests. Who would you side with? The person trying to make money > on the back of Twitter, or the people at Twitter who are forced to limit > the number of requests because the server load gets too high? > I don't think that's a good comparison. For example, users can download Audacity and use it to edit their music and make money with the created music. As a co-author of Audacity I do not feel bitter because all those people use the program for free. We also use Tomcat and the Apache webserver at work and I do not think the Apache Foundation feels bitter because we use it. We may make a donation to them but that's entirely optional (and IIRC they even say so on the website). Are you really saying I should feel bad because I took a LGPL library and used it in my commercial program and did not give you money for it? That's neither in the text nor in the spirit of the LGPL. > On a personal note: > I've spent a year in the hospital with my son who had bone cancer (he > was diagnosed in February 2008; I still remember who my world fell > apart). During that year, it became very clear to me that it had become > impossible to run a project like iText for free. If you think otherwise, > I'd like to go back in time and switch places with you. Sounds *bitter*, > but that's because your reaction makes me feel *bitter*. > > You shouldn't judge on people and their decisions if you don't know them > or the reasons that brought them to their decisions. > I feel for you and your son, but I don't see what this has to do with iText or the license change. If you change the license of iText because you need money, that's absolutely OK with me. But please be clear about it and don't call it a "license consolidation" on your website. Markus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOLARIS 10 is the OS for Data Centers - provides features such as DTrace, Predictive Self Healing and Award Winning ZFS. Get Solaris 10 NOW http://p.sf.net/sfu/solaris-dev2dev _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php Check the site with examples before you ask questions: http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ You can also search the keywords list: http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/
