2011/11/9 Praseed Pai <[email protected]>: > 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.
You are entitled to your opinion, but I differ with you here. But I think you misunderstood GPL here. There is no compulsion to distribute a derivative work, you can just keep the derivative work to yourselfe, your company or organization. But if you distribute the binary you are expected to give the source also because you received the source code with the binary which is the sole reason why you could make a derivative and we expect the person receiving the binary from you to have the same freedoms as you have. How can your need for money prevent the other person from enjoying the freedoms? After all you enjoyed the freedoms yourself. > 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 ) Debian project was started in 1993. Red Hat was not prominent then. > > 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 When someone release their software as GPL they are not doing it to give competitive advantage to small time development company or individuals but to give everyone freedom. Nobody is forcing anyone to use GPLed code, if you don't like the terms don't use it. > 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. Authors who release code under GPL is not interested in this, if you want this release your work under BSD or similar licenses. > 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 ) Are you saying taxing consulting work is bad? > 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. What is restricting them to add it? > Most Individuals prefer OSS licenses and corporations (paradoxically ) use > GPL. Those corporations GPL is an OSS license approved by Open Source Initiative. > use GPL as a deterent against their competitors. If you use GPL , your > competitors are also forced to > distribute the derivative. Why would you give your competitor a blank check? Your competitor is getting benefited from your work, it is not charity. > All the people in the world not willing to pay interest to Stallman's ego > by subscribing to GPL. That is fine, but it is still the most popular Free Software license in the world, so clearly many people disagree with your view and have a higher respect for the views of Stallman. > Have you ever wondered why we Indians are not part of Free Software > movement as contributors ? yes, a lot and not just wondering I'm actively working to get more contributors from India. > Even the people who advocate Free Software has got reluctance to share their > work. So, they never > bother to make the first step. I don't agree to your assessment at all. I think it is more to do with our cultural and economic situation, when you are worried about your own existence, it is hard for people to be thinking about giving back. Praveen -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് You have to keep reminding your government that you don't get your rights from them; you give them permission to rule, only so long as they follow the rules: laws and constitution. _______________________________________________ Indian Libre User Group Cochin Mailing List http://www.ilug-cochin.org/mailing-list/ http://mail.ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org #[email protected]
