Hello all ,
I have always personally believed that the "fourth freedom" ( compulsion
[freedom?] to distribute the derivative ) is the
root cause of all issues pertaining to GPL.
Companies like RedHat,IBM and others who rely on GPLed code as a base for their
infrastructure software
might have motivation to give it back to the community as they are also
benefiting from the base. In that way,
GPL is doing a good social service by forcing these giants to give it back to
the community. ( Debian project
itself is reaction to the prominence of RH )
What about small time development company or Individuals who use GPL code as
their base. They
will have reluctance to give the derivative work free as it might hamper their
competitive edge in the
market. A corporation spends capital by contributing a developer or two to get
mindshare of
the free software enthusiasts and they are using Software base as a mechanism
to speed up the
time to Market.
Most small time developers ( other than some occasional exceptions ) never
bother to use GPL source
code as their base. It is like fear of taxation which prevents an individual to
take additional consulting
work on top of his job. ( I have seen this phenomena a lot )
Take the case of GNUCash. It is one of the best source code base available out
there. If some one adds
some India specific modules , they can sell it. Whenever , I have suggested
people to use that
as a platform , GPL license were found to be restrictive and constraining for
them.
Most Individuals prefer OSS licenses and corporations (paradoxically ) use GPL.
Those corporations
use GPL as a deterent against their competitors. If you use GPL , your
competitors are also forced to
distribute the derivative.
All the people in the world not willing to pay interest to Stallman's ego by
subscribing to GPL.
Have you ever wondered why we Indians are not part of Free Software movement
as contributors ?
Even the people who advocate Free Software has got reluctance to share their
work. So, they never
bother to make the first step.
regards
Praseed Pai
________________________________
From: Anish A <[email protected]>
To: "This List discusses GNU/Linux & GNU, GPL Software"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] Ruby ditches GPL in favour of BSDL
2011/11/8 Praveen A <[email protected]>
2011/11/8 Siju George <[email protected]>:
>
>> GPL acheives its ends true. only thing it is not free!
>
>GPL ensures freedom to every user and BSD gives freedom to developers
>(including freedom to deny freedom to their users).
>
>
Since, I believe that users should have the ultimate freedom, I use and support
GNU GPL and I usually don't contribute to any non-copylefted software.
--
Regards,
Anish A
http://identi.ca/aneeshnl
സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം തന്നെയമൃതം
സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം തന്നെ ജീവിതം
പാരതന്ത്ര്യം മാനികള്ക്ക് മൃതിയെക്കാള്
ഭയാനകം
- മഹാകവി കുമാരനാശാന്
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