On Tuesday 10 October 2006 20:58, Rony wrote: > jtd wrote: > > What u are trying to do in this thread is make a business plan > > with only one input - somebody else's distro. And then conclude > > without any logic that u cant make money because the next guy has > > the same input's as u. > > Not at all. The distro is made by me ( in the example I gave ) and > I want to make money selling it, not allow someone *else* to ruin > my fruits of labour by giving it away free while I wait for > customers to turn up at my door. It should not turn into a "Come O > bull, hit me" as I grant gpl permission to others to do it.
Aha. But u dont have to give it away free at all. U can most certainly sell it. What u cant do is prevent the downstream from selling it too - except for your trade marks and brand marks. So if u have the might to build a brand and distribute where is the problem? The downstream guy CANT copy your trademarks, brand marks, distinctive packaging, documentation. Think "Lux supreme" made in umpteen sweat shop like SSIs, Coughka Khola bottled by numerous bottlers, Lays potato chips, Pan Parag, VIP, Amul. U can roll these in your kitchen with better performance and lower costs. All the above products stand on brands and distribution networks, built at enormous costs over time, that act as entry barriers. So even superior products cannot easily enter the market. The big brands too follow arm twisting tactics, occasionally illegal (smashing up bottles, engineering labour unrest ) but mostly more brand building and distribution incentives. Infact the unorganised sector sells more of the above products than all the branded guys put together. Same story in the PC hardware market. As u can see the licence has got nothing to do with market acceptance on a commercial basis. In fact in this case the gpl is actually lowering the entry barrier - almost zero development costs for u and others too. It is leveraging the power of word of mouth publicity and new communication media. It's leveraging new distribution channels - internet. It's totally focussed on the customer - just send a mail about a bug to developer and see. The one thing it isnt focussed on is an individual business. If your goals deviate from those of the contibutors u can pay them to work towards your goals or do it your self (as in hire somebody). What u have is essentially a natural commodity abundantly and freely available (water, air). Wether u sell it plain, bottled, with nimbu, chai or pesticide is what u decide based on your resources. -- Rgds JTD -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
