Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 18:21:20 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net> Cc: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The GPL is really the PPL (Was: Sun's web site) Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000819181556.04cf48c0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <399EF92B.E58BF78B@mail.ptd.net> References: <20000816221119.B7276@physics.iisc.ernet.in> <4.3.2.7.2.20000817232139.04cf0840@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20000818064620.00dbc670@localhost>
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At 03:16 PM 8/19/2000, Thomas M. Sommers wrote: >> > If they use the GPL, they can >> >be pretty sure that no one else will make one, either. Management has a >> >fiduciary duty to the shareholders. If they give away their source, and >> >some other company makes a killing with it, >> >> Then they are hurt not one bit. > >A greedy shyster will argue that management breached its duty because it >should have know that a killing could be made, but instead gave away the >ability to make it. That's actually a legitmate argument, and not that of a shyster by any means. In any event,the horse is out of the barn at that point; the hurt has already happened. If someone DOES make a killing with the softare, it does not hurt the company any more than it has already been hurt by its own foolishness. >> Not true. The company is undermining its ENTIRE INDUSTRY by using the >> GPL. It's sort of like saying, "Yes, I killed myself, but at least I >> hurt my competitor a little." > >But they can't get sued for that. Yes, actually, they can. It falls under many states' "Unfair business practices" statutes. And if the GPLed software monopolizes the market (as it has the market for UNIX C compilers), antitrust law may kick in. >I understand your dislike of the GPL, and even agree with it up to a >point (really, not as in "Up to a point, Lord Copper."). But that is >irrelevant to the point I was trying to make. Your point, as I recall, was that you thought the PPL was appealing to some foolish people within corporations because they have been led to believe that the "poison pill" might hobble competitors. I disagree. Any company that produces software is hurting itself the most when it releases PPLed code. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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