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From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: BISON, GCC, and the GNU public license. (Re: increasing yacc states)
Message-ID: <5271@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 26 Jul 89 16:08:24 GMT
References: <Jul.5.09.29.33.1989.23541@topaz.rutgers.edu> <26@ark1.nswc.navy.mil> <26609@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 41

In article <26609@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, mwm@eris.berkeley.edu (Mike (I'll think of something yet) Meyer) writes:
> The GNU General Public License isn't about profit or sales, it's about
> the right to give away neat tools to our friends.

No, it's about the right of intellectual property. It uses the laws
that are based on that right to deny it to other people.

> If you can't see a way to make a profit in that situation,
> the failure in in your imagination, not in the License.

Look, I want to be able to sell software. I want to be able to buy
software. This is what the vast majority of the software industry consists
of: people buying and selling software. Whether it's explicit (say,
the Lattice C compiler for the Amiga), implicit (say, the engine
computer in your Pontiac Fiero M4), or whatever. If you can't prevent
people from copying it and redistributing it you can't recoup your
development costs.

Sure, one can be creative and find a way to operate within the scope
of the GNU copyleft, but by doing that one is putting oneself at a
competitive disadvantage.

	1. Your competitors can knock off your system.
	2. Your would-be customers can become competitors.
	3. Bad guys can modify the system (hot engine computer
	   PROMS, for example), making you liable for damages.
	4. People can learn about the internals of your product,
	   and come to depend on them... making it impossible
	   to make enhancements in the future (Apple's problems
	   with people making direct calls to the Apple-II ROMS,
	   for example).
	5. And so on...

I'm sure you can see other problems with that. If you can't see how
giving up intellectual property rights can hurt you it's a failure
in your imagination, not in the concept.
-- 
Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Business: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. | "...helping make the world
Personal: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.   `-_-' |  a quote-free zone..."
Quote: Have you hugged your wolf today?  'U`  |    -- hjm@cernvax.cern.ch