On Fri, 2010-12-31 at 14:01 +0530, jtd wrote: > > True. The GPL was designed to ensure wins for both the developer > > and the end user. The party that loses in this system is the > > distributor - he now has to play by the rules, or drop out of the > > system altogether. GPL-violations.org tracks those distributors who > > are being difficult about it. > > Only violators are losers. Whoever abides by the rules and tailors > his > business to the rules wins, including distributors - in a way > everyone is a minor contibutor to the overall system and everyone is > a distributor, including distro vendors like canonical, slackware, > whoever. Whiccever way you look at it, everyone is taking orders of > magnitude more than they are putting in. The best part is this is > intended by design.
right now we are discussing a perversion of the GPL - keeping so-called GPL code private. I do not agree with much that Stallman says - but I *do* believe that he has drafted the GPL for the purpose of protecting the rights of a publisher of source code in the open. At least I hope so. If one keeps the source code private (between two individuals), then of what use is GPLing it (apart from bragging rights - 'I am a foss programmer because my code is GPLed'). -- regards KG http://lawgon.livejournal.com Coimbatore LUG rox http://ilugcbe.techstud.org/ -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
