On 14 Feb 2002, at 13:15, David Jencks wrote:

> I don't mean to nitpick or quibble...
>
> On 2002.02.14 12:50:50 -0500 Paul Schmidt wrote:
> > On 14 Feb 2002, at 16:12, David K. Trudgett wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > The GPL is a restrictive license.
> > >
> > > The GPL is a free license, designed to promote freedom. Not
> > > everyone wants freedom, of course, such as people trying to sell
> > > their applications according to the normal commercial model.
> > > That's fine. These people shouldn't use the GPL. Nor should they
> > > expect a free ride by incorporating GPL'd software into their
> > > binaries. Share and share alike is what it's about. As for it
> > > being "viral", that's a load of poppycock. Use the public API of
> > > GPL'd software and don't link it into your executables (statically
> > > or dynamically) and you're quite safe.
> > >
> >
> > The GPL is the most restrictive licence around,
>
> surely you don't really mean that. More restrictive than licenses for
> closed source where you have to pay a royalty per user? More
> restrictive than licenses that threaten you with doom if you decompile
> to try to find out why it doesn't work as advertised?
>

I should have said ONE OF the most restrictive, in the case of
libraries it doesn't work well, because it restricts the user to only
producing free software. MySQL, puts commercial users between
a rock (The GPL which forces you to produce "free" software) and a
hard place (a Commercial licence where you hand your profits to
MySQL AB). To bring this back to IB/FB, the fact that FB has an
unrestricted, free licence, becomes a huge selling feature, even for
IB, because the user has the choice, not the library vendor.

> you are effectively
> > limited to producing "free" software with it, because anybody else
> > can re-distribute that software for free, your hopes of actually
> > making money, are slim to none. In some cases you don't have a
> > choice, if the library you want to use is GPL then you can't make
> > money off your work,
>
> Maybe not by charging people to use it, but that is certainly not the
> only way to make money from software. Selling docs, training,
> consulting, and support also make money from software.
>

However there is nothing to prevent the customer, from buying
those docs, training and consulting from someone else, once the
initial product is completed. So unless, you arrange a contractual
obligation at the beginning, the profit could evaporate very quickly.

Paul
Paul Schmidt
Tricat Technologies
paul@...
www.tricattechnologies.com