On Wed, 2006-01-18 at 06:15, Andy Green wrote:
> > What I don't really understand is how you go *poof* out of the market
> > when you sell gadgets that need a open source driver ? People still
> > would have to by the gadget, wouldn't they ?
>
> The worry is that when much of what makes the gadget innovative is tied
> up in the code that must be opened, people will indeed still buy the
> gadget, but perhaps not from the original author of the opened code...
Or, the gadget depends on code already written and under another
license. The GPL is all-or-nothing in this regard so if any
component (with some interpretation of components...) needs
a non-GPL license, none can have it. Personally I think this
is indefensibly anti-competitive. Imagine if Microsoft said
that if you used any 3rd party DLLs along with their code
the 3rd party code suddenly become controlled by Microsoft's
license. I'm not a lawyer, and even if I were I wouldn't risk
a business on that interpretation, but there is just something
wrong with the concept that you can't combine different products
to add value.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
