Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 19:59:11 +0100 From: Cliff Sarginson <csfbsd@raggedclown.net> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: First test of GPL in court Message-ID: <20020227185911.GF2129@raggedclown.net> In-Reply-To: <20020227150039.B16555@energyhq.homeip.net> References: <20020227122820.A64839@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20020227142005.A16555@energyhq.homeip.net> <20020227132417.B64839@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20020227052928.L12253@rain.macguire.net> <20020227133748.C64839@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20020227054428.M12253@rain.macguire.net> <20020227150039.B16555@energyhq.homeip.net>
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On Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 03:00:39PM +0100, Miguel Mendez wrote: > On Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 05:44:28AM -0800, Benjamin Krueger wrote: > > > FWIW he has never said you can't make profit selling GPL'ed software, > you can charge as much as you want for it, but I've never seen any > company making money on that, except a few Linux distribution vendors, > which anyway use code created by other people, so that doesn't really > count. > I once got into a discussion on the SuSE linux mailing list about the curiosity value of SuSE who do not license their software (in particular yast, their configuration program) under the GPL. What companies like SuSE are doing is locking you into them by the back-door, you cannot really lock-up a user-base with only GPL software. One of the most peculiar problems with GPL is explaining it's implications to managers. I worked on a project where I implemented a very heavily hacked version of Vixie cron, saving on my estimates several month's of a senior programmers time. Trying to explain that this meant we would have to make the source code available to at least that program to the customer was like trying to talk Klingon to a dead snail. European readers may note that the EC is on the point of legislating for the strengthening of software patents. Follow the bouncing ball from the GNU web page if you can understand European Double-Speak. -- Regards Cliff Sarginson -- <csfbsd@raggedclown.net> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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