hi krishna tons of thnx for answering my questions,thgere re a few more as i understand if i develop a software licensed under gpl it implies that anyone else is allowedto copy it ,distribute it,modify it and do whatever is allowed to do as per gpl.then if i develop a software and a person x makes an exact copy of it and sells it for some priceand makes millions over it,hows it justified in that case?
what have been the milestones in the history of free software movement?
do all proprietary software have free software to copmete with?
why should normal ppl like you n me be interested in free software when we never buy licensed software?
Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary
do all proprietary software have free software to copmete with?
Short Answer is NO. Little longer answer is Almost All software that ordinary people use has free software competition.
why should normal ppl like you n me be interested in free software when we never buy licensed software?
Short Answer: Listen to Eben Moglen recent speech where he answers this question. Beyond Free Software: Ultimate Legal Consequences of the Free Information Movement http://www.antitrustisti.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloa...
Long answer 1) Legal problems from NASCOMM are one reason. 2) More importantly you dont have all freedoms, and not having freedom is a problem.
the freedom to run the program for any purpose (called "freedom 0") the freedom to study and modify the program ("freedom 1") the freedom to copy the program so you can help your neighbor ("freedom 2") the freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits ("freedom 3")
e.g. You dont have right to read and understand the program, all students of computers should care about this. You dont have right to make improvements, so localization cannot be made. Both of us can read and write english but normal ppl cannot do so, if you want to localize M$ word you are out of luck, with Free Software like Open Office you can do it.
From wikipedia "Furthermore, the openness of free software eases internationalization creating economic and social benefits for users in more countries"
3) As we are finding out, property regimes of knowledge are inefficient and create indirect taxes, I would like to avoid them. 4) Would you want to support Wikipedia or MSN encarta? both are free of cost but if you wanted to contribute, where will your contributions go? Wikipedia right? Why? Because wikipedia is Free as in Freedom, and nobody makes money off of it.
what have been the milestones in the history of free software movement?
It is a long road to freedom, with incremental milestones. Foundation of FSF in 1984, Linux kernel release in 1991 count as two major milestones. If you want a history LWN yearly timelines are a good resource http://lwn.net/Articles/163414/
makes an exact copy of it (gpl software) and sells it for some price and makes millions over it,hows it justified in that case?
Unlikely. I am yet to see people making money like that. Some people made a lot of money by selling services or distributions, but not based solely on one single peice of software.
But what you are saying can happen with BSD/MIT licensed software. My guess is that those licenses are less popular for this reason.
Warm Regards, Krishna
Mishi Choudhary mishi_c@rediffmail.com wrote: hi krishna tons of thnx for answering my questions,thgere re a few more as i understand if i develop a software licensed under gpl it implies that anyone else is allowedto copy it ,distribute it,modify it and do whatever is allowed to do as per gpl.then if i develop a software and a person x makes an exact copy of it and sells it for some priceand makes millions over it,hows it justified in that case?
what have been the milestones in the history of free software movement?
do all proprietary software have free software to copmete with?
why should normal ppl like you n me be interested in free software when we never buy licensed software?
Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary
===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/
The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos Got holiday prints? See all the ways to get quality prints in your hands ASAP.
"Krishna" == Krishna Pagadala krishnaact@yahoo.com writes:
Krishna> [snip]
Krishna> e.g. You dont have right to read and understand the Krishna> program, all students of computers should care about Krishna> this. You dont have right to make improvements, so Krishna> localization cannot be made. Both of us can read and Krishna> write english but normal ppl cannot do so, ...
Erk, I'm not normal now?
Krishna> From wikipedia "Furthermore, the openness of free Krishna> software eases internationalization creating economic and Krishna> social benefits for users in more countries"
Krishna> 3) As we are finding out, property regimes of knowledge Krishna> are inefficient and create indirect taxes, I would like Krishna> to avoid them. 4) Would you want to support Wikipedia or Krishna> MSN encarta? both are free of cost but if you wanted to Krishna> contribute, where will your contributions go? Wikipedia Krishna> right? Why? Because wikipedia is Free as in Freedom, and Krishna> nobody makes money off of it.
Please don't confuse the Free as in Freedom with making money. I make money out of free software, as do lots of people. Free/Libre and Proprietary have nothing to do with commercial or non-commercial.
Regards,
-- Raju
Krishna> Both of us can read and write english but Krishna> normal ppl cannot do so, ...
Raj> Erk, I'm not normal now?
I should have written "but majority of Indians cannot do so"
Krishna> Because wikipedia is Free as in Freedom, and Krishna> nobody makes money off of it.
Raj> Please don't confuse the Free as in Freedom with Raj> making money. I make money out of free software, Raj> as do lots of people. Free/Libre and Proprietary Raj> have nothing to do with commercial or non-commercial.
I accept your correction. However my comment has some value in it. The original question was "makes an exact copy of gpl software, sells it and makes millions" the way I read it, the third party CustY starts a bussiness of selling exact copies (of course it wont work). The way people are making money is by selling service which is an entirely different bussiness, and viewed differently by society.
In my example nobody makes money off of Wikipedia, which is strictly not true, because you can still sell CD's and other services on top of it. But it holds up overall.
-Krishna
===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/
The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos Got holiday prints? See all the ways to get quality prints in your hands ASAP.
in infinite wisdom Mishi Choudhary spoke thus On Monday 16 January 2006 04:19 PM:
hi krishna tons of thnx for answering my questions,thgere re a few more
as i understand if i develop a software licensed under gpl it implies
that anyone else is allowedto copy it ,distribute it,modify it and do whatever is allowed to do as per gpl.then if i develop a software and a person x makes an exact copy of it and sells it for some priceand makes millions over it,hows it justified in that case?
This is based on the premise that all computer programmers will write software for their own company or eventually build a hugely successful startup. Unluckily, there can be only few Yahoo!s and Googles. Most of the CS students will end up becoming the fodder for our outsourcing giants or end up churning java code for the banks and MIS departments.
Coming back to the point. DevX develops a piece of software, let us call it Mooo. CustomerY buys this piece of software for, say, 200 bucks. CustomerZ comes to DevY and tells him to sell Mooo. CustomerY offers him a competitive price of 100 bucks (as opposed to the 200 bucks being charged by DevX). What is DevX to do now ? Won't he starve to death ?
As a college student, I would have answered - "Yes, DevX will starve. CustomerY will take away all his customers". As a somewhat experienced man, who has changed quite a few jobs, I answer - "I doubt DevX's business will flounder". The secret to running a successful company is to produce "customer satisfaction". Products are necessary props in producing satisfaction, but they're not the only necessary props.
Providing support for the GPL software is currently the most popular means of making money from it. Free Software offers the best option for software developers worldwide to develop a common public body of software and then sell it in their local market as a service. For example, let me take the example of a mail server. Setting up postfix (which is one of the mail servers available under GPL) is a piece of cake if you know what you are doing. Postfix comes with tons of documentation. However, not everyone has the time and inclination to read through them and get it working. Most people want to send emails to their colleagues, not spend time understanding how smtp works. They are perfectly willing to pay good money to someone competent to setup the who damn thing. (I know this is a hard thing to grasp, especially if you are nerd like me who likes to do thing his own way)
do all proprietary software have free software to copmete with?
Yes. If today someone chooses a piece of proprietary software for his needs, he would better know something that the engineers at Yahoo!, Google and Amazon don't.
why should normal ppl like you n me be interested in free software when we never buy licensed software?
So, you admit to having pirated software on your desktop ? Be prepared when BSA comes knocking on your home requesting to audit you software inventory. The BSA has been putting pressure on many small scale companies to pay up or face data loss.
in infinite wisdom Raj Shekhar spoke thus On Monday 16 January 2006 11:17 PM:
Coming back to the point. DevX develops a piece of software, let us call it Mooo. CustomerY buys this piece of software for, say, 200 bucks. CustomerZ comes to DevY and tells him to sell Mooo.
^^^^^
I mean CustomerY and of course, DevX had released the software under a GPL license
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Krishna Pagadala -
Mishi Choudhary -
Raj Mathur -
Raj Shekhar