From: Fred Maxwell <rockbox_at_anti-spam.org>
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 19:18:28 -0500

Nix wrote:

> Why are people reselling GPLed software `low-life scum'?

Not all people who do so are. But when the transaction relies on the
ignorance of the buyer, it's scummy. When the buyer ends up being pissed
off when he gets nothing but a link to GPL software that is freely available
for download, it's scummy.

It would be a wholly acceptable matter if the seller (who has since done the
right thing by pulling the ad) had an ad that read: "I'm selling you a link
to a public web site where you can download free, GPL software. All you are
paying me for is the convenience of not finding it yourself." That's not
what was done. Nowhere in there was there a mention that the software was
GPL, that it was freely available, or that the buyer was purchasing
something other than a traditional license-to-use.

> They might
> provide services as well; hell, simply the service of flashing Rockbox
> for you might be valuable to the nervous.

Then sell the service and quit pretending to sell software that you don't
own and that is freely available for download.

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

I don't recall saying that they were.

> I guess I just don't get it.

Hopefully you better understand my position now.
 
> > they should have created a license which prohibited the for-profit
> > resale of the Rockbox firmware, documentation, and source code.
{snip}
> You realise that such a license would forbid, e.g., putting Rockbox on
> magazine cover CDs, or anything similar?

Yes, I do. Many people would be happy to contribute to open source but are
loathe to do so when their work is resold for a profit by others who
contribute nothing to the development, testing, documentation, etc. I'm not
saying that it bothers everyone, but it bothers many people. That's why so
many people were pissed off when Gracenote commercialized CDDB (example:
http://foetusized.org/cddb.html). To me, it's like working on a Habitat for
Humanity project to build a house for the poor and then finding out that
Century 21 is trying to sell it to a someone who wants to turn it into a
rental property.

Regards,
  Fred Maxwell
Received on 2004-01-06