Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 18:19:41 -0500 From: David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Sun's web site Message-ID: <200008172319.SAA84418@nospam.hiwaay.net> In-Reply-To: Message from "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net> of "Thu, 17 Aug 2000 14:07:27 EDT." <399C29DF.D78B117@mail.ptd.net>
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"Thomas M. Sommers" writes: > Companies probably prefer BSD (meaning the license) to GPL when they are > using other people's code, but when they are opening their own code, the > might well prefer GPL. Managment is probably worried that if they use > BSD on their code, some other company might make a profit from it, which > would get management in trouble with their stockholders for essentially > giving away a valuable asset. If they use GPL however, then they are > guaranteed that they will be able to use whatever modifications the > other company is using to make its profit. Notice under GPL you do not give up the copyright on the software. You still own it and control it. Presumably even the mods others (anonymous contributors who don't go to lengths to claim their own copyright on the revisions) put into it. What I'm saying is the copyright holder is still free at a later date to jump back in with a non-GPL version including developments during its GPL phase. YMMV, depends on how good your lawyers and public relations people are. /usr/src/gnu/COPYING plainly states if you wish to use GPL'ed code in a non-GPL'ed product to contact the copyright holder and ask permission. Clearly the copyright holder is not bound by the terms of GPL. Has this not happened a number of times already with Linux-derived device drivers in FreeBSD? -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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