Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker!ai-lab!jla From: jla@wheaties.ai.mit.edu (Joseph Arceneaux) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: Selling of free software Message-ID: <9860@galapas.ai.mit.edu> Date: 12 Aug 90 15:24:55 GMT References: <6--4A8C@xds13.ferranti.com> <1990Aug8.173146.1206@santra.uucp> <7268@star.cs.vu.nl> <1990Aug10.170521.9435@zoo.toronto.edu> <9849@galapas.ai.mit.edu> <1990Aug11.234423.3307@zoo.toronto.edu> Reply-To: jla@ai.mit.edu (Joseph Arceneaux) Organization: The GNU Project Lines: 32 In article <1990Aug11.234423.3307@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >>I recomend using Copyleft if you intend to make a contribution of your >>code to society. If your intent is indeed to benefit others with your >>program, then Copyleft will ensure that no one can eventually prohibit >>some group from thus benefitting. >The question here is not whether you want to "benefit others", because >releasing good software will do that regardless of which licensing policy >you choose. The underlying issue is how concerned you are about others >who do not share your altruistic views, and whether you feel so strongly >about what they might do that you are willing to prohibit use of your >software by people who won't or can't promise to be good. If these folks want to use the software, there's no problem with Copyleft and they do indeed benefit; they are certainly not prohibited from doing so. If on the other hand their intention is to sell the stuff, the only `benefit' is the cash they make from witholding resources from their clients. These people have now prohibited their clients from the benefits (i.e, the source) which they (the so-called vendors) were free to obtain. >Not everyone >who is constrained by his company's lawyers is a bad guy, and insisting >on a promise of good behavior will deny the benefits of your software >to many people. This is true, and not everyone in South Africa believes in Apartheid. That doesn't mean that those citizens shouldn't speak their minds and try to change their government's policies, nor does it mean that the rest of the world should treat the country as though the problem didn't exist.