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Date:      Wed, 23 Aug 2000 13:25:20 -0600
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        Tani Hosokawa <unknown@riverstyx.net>, j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: GPL v. BSD and fragmentation
Message-ID:  <4.3.2.7.2.20000823132044.057d1ba0@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <20000822063012.F10643@riverstyx.net>
References:  <20000822141843.C27208@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20000822141843.C27208@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>

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At 07:30 AM 8/22/2000, Tani Hosokawa wrote:

>Congratulations.  Now you understand the GPL philosophy -- intellectual
>property in the form of software has no intrinsic value beyond the time
>it took to create it.

Richard Stallman wants intellectual property to have no value AT ALL.
He frequently states, publicly, that he believes the concept of
intellectual property to be "evil" and seeks to undermine it at every
turn.

For example, he states that a composer of music should be able to make
money only by being paid to perform. (Of course, the flaw in this is that
the composer is not necessarily a performer. What's more, a musician is
unlikely to be able to make a reasonable living solely by being paid
to play.) 

>  Either believe that and use the GPL, or don't,
>and use some other license.

The problem is that the GPL is coercive. More and more, it is taking
over and destroying markets, leaving no choice other than GPLed
software.

>You do, however, have the right to continue to modify the original work
>that came along before the GPL and sell that as a commercial product.

But you won't be able to. People will go for what's GPLed and therefore
free of cost to them so long as it's "good enough." What's more, the
GPL zealots will copy your value added and put it in the GPLed version.
You're out of business.

--Brett



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