linux-kernel - Re: GPL version 4

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Message-Id: <1216436702.17606.1264270853@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Date:	Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:05:02 -0400
From:	"Eric Furman" <ericfurman@...tmail.net>
To:	davids@...master.com, 7eggert@....de,
	"Morton Harrow" <mharrow@...uxmail.org>,
	"Kasper Sandberg" <lkml@...anurb.dk>,
	"Miod Vallat" <miod@...ine.fr>, licensing@....org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, "Richard Stallman" <rms@....org>,
	claire.newman@...onical.com, announce@...europe.org,
	ubuntu-users@...ts.ubuntu.com, fedora-list@...hat.com,
	netbsd-users@...bsd.org, freebsd-questions@...ebsd.org
Subject: Re: GPL version 4

Could you guys please remove misc@...nbsd.org from the cc
of this mail? Nobody here cares.

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:47:46 -0700, "David Schwartz"
<davids@...master.com> said:
> > Would you grant me the freedom to give away your commercial
> > product for free
> > or to incorporate it in my commercial product? Probably not. You'd instead
> > grant me less freedom. The GPL protects me from this.
> 
> Except it doesn't. With or without the GPL, if he still makes his
> commercial
> product, you will still be unable to give it away or incorporate it in
> your
> commercial product. If he doesn't make it, that's just less choice for
> everyone.
> 
> It may be a poorer product. It may cost him more to develop it. It may
> wind
> up not existing. But in no case will will you wind up with the freedom to
> give away his commercial product. So the GPL actually won't protect you
> from
> this at all.
> 
> It will just result in him producing a poorer, more expensive, less
> compatible product -- or none at all. Either way, everyone else will have
> fewer (and/or poorer) choices. Everyone loses. Nobody wins.
> 
> Note that had he been able to incorporate the GPL code in his commercial
> product, he may have passed bug fixes and improvements back to the GPL
> project. He would not have had to, of course, but if his product just
> uses a
> GPL component or library (that doesn't compete with the larger product),
> there's no reason for him not to. Everybody could have won.
> 
> It's always possible he may instead elect to make a GPL'd project. This
> may
> allow him to produce a higher-quality product in less time. It may allow
> others to build on his work, and result in more freedom for everyone. He
> may
> make less money, but maybe not. The question of whether the "everybody
> loses" or the "lots of people, maybe everybody, wins" case is more common
> is
> an empiric one.
> 
> I have seen an awful lot of "everybody loses" cases. I've seen very few
> "everybody wins" cases.
> 
> DS
> 
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