jdow wrote:
[Huge Snip]
> Note that I am at a stretch only going so far as to suggest that a
> change in philosophy might be productive. It would draw in a whole
> lot of people like me. Let me earn $10000 net for 100 hours of work
> and then release it GPL.
Nobody is stopping you from creating your own company, writing your own
business plan, writing your own license agreement, seeking venture
capital, hiring yourself and others, and releasing software under your
license terms.
The changes in philosophy you suggest might be productive. But, make
now bones about it, the productivity/advantage you desire has you as the
target audience. For whatever reason, you wish the GPL folks to change
their terms to suit your purposes. That's OK. You should be contacting
them about your proposed changes and hold off doing work until you get
them to agree.
But, don't expect to have your cake and eat it too. Don't expect
("expect" doesn't imply you won't) to use "GPL" software that you've
obtained for free to write "GPL" software to sell at a profit.
As the "GPL" license agreement states:
" When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if
you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new
free programs; and that you know you can do these things."
And the Qt folks who want people selling software based on their tools:
"Based on the "Quid Pro Quo" principle, if you wish to derive a
commercial advantage by not releasing your application under an open
source license, you must purchase an appropriate number of commercial
licenses from Trolltech. By purchasing commercial licenses, you are no
longer obliged to publish your source code."
FWIW, I've done consulting work for several companies. One of them is
quite small, 5~7 employees, the other quite big, BT (as in British
Telecom). Both of them have products and use products from the GPL
world. Both sell them. Both will release source code of the GPL pieces
upon request. (See above).
I wish I could stock my freezer with all the Red Herring being tossed
about here.
