On Fri, 2010-12-31 at 14:01 +0530, jtd wrote:
True. The GPL
was designed to ensure wins for both the developer
and the end user. The party that loses in this system is the
distributor - he now has to play by the rules, or drop out of the
system altogether.
GPL-violations.org tracks those distributors who
are being difficult about it.
Only violators are losers. Whoever abides by the rules and tailors
his
business to the rules wins, including distributors - in a way
everyone is a minor contibutor to the overall system and everyone is
a distributor, including distro vendors like canonical, slackware,
whoever. Whiccever way you look at it, everyone is taking orders of
magnitude more than they are putting in. The best part is this is
intended by design.
right now we are discussing a perversion of the GPL - keeping so-called
GPL code private. I do not agree with much that Stallman says - but I
*do* believe that he has drafted the GPL for the purpose of protecting
the rights of a publisher of source code in the open. At least I hope
so. If one keeps the source code private (between two individuals), then
of what use is GPLing it (apart from bragging rights - 'I am a foss
programmer because my code is GPLed').
--
regards
KG
http://lawgon.livejournal.com
Coimbatore LUG rox
http://ilugcbe.techstud.org/