On Wed, 2011-01-05 at 16:11 +0530, steve wrote:
*shrugs* that is B's problem - no one compels him to pay cash money
for
software - it is his choice. If you cannot get something free, and
you
cannot do without it or work around it - you pay. I see lots of
people
paying for software because they think they cannot do without it.
Not my
problem.
How did cash come in the picture ? Let's say A also distributes your app with his improvements for 0 price (ie: freeware). The crux is you don't care about B's loss of freedom of choice although you harp on A's <sarcasm>freedom</sarcasm> to close code that was open. Slightly misplaced priorities, don't you think ?
how does B lose freedom of choice? no one forces him to use freeware. If he thinks he cannot do without it, that is his problem. And A has not closed the code which was open. The code is still open. A has closed his improvements - that is his choice. btw, what happens if A releases his improved code under the GPL? I cannot use his improvements in my code - so as far as I am concerned it is irrelevant whether he releases his code under the GPL or whether he chooses not release his code. (this actually happened to me once - some guy took a lot of my code, incorporated it into his app and released the whole thing under GPL - no doubt he was free to do this, but I flamed him anyway - and he promptly un-GPL'd his code and released it under BSD.)