On Wed, Oct 04, 2000 at 02:16:18PM +0200, Christian Vandendorpe wrote:
> I dont mind paying for something if it will be useful for my project and
> will make my program more useful to my users. But I do mind if my
> program then has to become free because I'm using one piece of code.
You forget that much GPL code has an author that will release you from
the GPL requirement for a fee. In that way there is no difference
between that and a commercial library. So just go ahead and pay for it.
> This is not the place for a philosophical discussion on the GPL. But I
> resent the GPL as it is only for large corporations (what a paradox) who
> can live off support. It is not for individual programmers who want to
> live from their software and not from support.
Actually licensing terms and economic models should be on-topic.
I know of very little of the body of GPLed work that is the product of
large corporations.
Most of it is from programmers like me who are NOT getting paid for
doing something neat or useful, but would resent OTHERS getting paid
for something we wrote without any other compensation.
Basically you want me to write part of your program, and not give me
any return for the money you make from it. The GPL just says if you
use my code without paying me, you shouldn't get paid for what you
write either.
The economic model of the GPL is that the base code is free. The
money is to be made on distribution, consulting, integration and
customization.
I supposed the idea is like a public park where you can do most things
for free, but if you want to sell something you need a vendors
license. If I spend time or money to improve the park, everyone
benefits but no one profits. If people want to use the park (A
"public good" in economic terms) to make profit they should pay for
the maintainence of the park.
> I say, boycott the GPL.
You should rather boycott unsupported (de facto or de jure) commercial
software, annoyware and crippleware.
Or, conversely, how much code of your own have you made available
under one of your favored licenses? If you've contributed a lot of
OpenSource code, I might see your point. Otherwise it sounds like you
just want to leech.
Go ahead, boycott the GPL, but if you are going to do so, you should
lead by example, making a large amount of your own code free for
anyone else to resell commercially without paying you.
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