From: Nix <nix_at_esperi.org.uk>
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 17:11:17 +0000

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Fred Maxwell yowled:
> That's the big problem with the GPL: Bottom-feeders can take GPL code and
> resell it, giving nothing to the developers.

Yes. That's part of the point of the GPL and was explicitly designed
into it (except that they're not called `bottom-feeders' in the
Manifesto).

> If the Rockbox team didn't want the code resold by such low-life scum, then

Why are people reselling GPLed software `low-life scum'? They might
provide services as well; hell, simply the service of flashing Rockbox
for you might be valuable to the nervous.

Why are people like <http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/> `low-life scum'?
They provide a product people want.

I guess I just don't get it.

> they should have created a license which prohibited the for-profit resale of
> the Rockbox firmware, documentation, and source code.

... which would not have been free software. The negative consequences
of such licenses are large enough that when the Open Group tried to take
X to such a license in X11R6.4, X was threatened with a fork that was
avoided only when the Open Group backed down (not that they had much
choice; the forking entity, XFree86, is where 90% of the activity in the
X community happens these days).

You realise that such a license would forbid, e.g., putting Rockbox on
magazine cover CDs, or anything similar?

-- 
As they say, build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a
path to your door. But nobody ever got anywhere outlawing mice.

Received on 2004-01-04