From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, LOTS_OF_MONEY,MSGID_RANDY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,577c9f9c0cdd76d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert Dewar Subject: Re: Confusing language, was Re: Help help.. please.i am totaly new in ada programing Date: 1999/11/05 Message-ID: <7vvotp$eqn$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 544932235 References: <7vs4g9$7hs1@news.cis.okstate.edu> X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x23.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Fri Nov 05 23:23:40 1999 GMT X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDrobert_dewar Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.04 [en] (OS/2; I) Date: 1999-11-05T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , tmoran@bix.com wrote: > so am I prevented from taking the GNAT source, > modifying it, say for MacOS, and charging for it (following the > same source code release requirements as ACT, of course)? You are not prevented from doing anything, you can sell GNAT for as much as you like (provided you make sources available) I am really surprised you would ask such questions. This is pretty clear from the license! > Is ACT prevented from charging for upgrades after the customer > is locked in? ACT can charge whatever it likes for whatever it wants, like any other vendor. The GPL never places any restrictions on what people can charge for anything. We are of course limited by what the market will bear, and in the case where people have the sources, the market allows competition pretty freely, so if ACT suddenly announces that version 3.14 of GNAT will cost $1 million, I would expect some serious competition to appear :-) > And ACT currently has a large support charge Well we think it is modest given what you get for it :-) > - what > prevents them from inflating it further once the customer is > locked in ? Again, we are constrained by the market, but there is nothing special about the fact that GNAT is free software, except that customers are free to do anything they like, including getting their support from elsewhere than ACT (e.g. if they are a large user, doing support themselves if this makes better economic sense). Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.