On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 12:51:38AM +0100, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
> But if you want to make a living from selling computer software, you
> can't use that code[1]. And if you can't make a living from selling the
> software, you don't have professionalism as as much of a
> motivation.
But should you be entitled to make a living SELLING in a restrictive way
what somebody else wrote and gave away free (libre and gratuit) ? The GPL
exists just so that people can write free software and ensure that others
cannot steal their work in this way.
> > It just doesn't seem right to me that somebody can take others'
> > work and build on it and profit from it without giving anything
> > back.
>> And if the person who provided the work was well aware that people
> would do that? But was sufficiently good-natured to do it all the
> same?
Ahh - well, this is where I'm not RMS as previously mentioned. Such a person
will of course not release his code under the GPL and I wouldn't dream of
saying that he must. I don't think that RMS wants the GPL to become
obligatory, though I'm sure he'd be happy if it became universal.
Niall
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