Re: and visual library once again

["Marc A. Criley" <mcNOSPAM@mckae.com>]

Martin Dowie wrote:
> Steve Whalen wrote:
> 
>> But it is important to remind anyone asking such a question that they
>> can sell the program ONLY if they give a copy of the source code to the
> 
> 
> They only have to give a copy if the customer asks for a copy...
> 
> ....I've got the source code for OpenOffice sitting kicking around my 
> drive somewhere - but it's of no use to me!

Which actually has some serendipitous relevance to comp.lang.ada 
denizens.  I can package up a commercial version of my application, 
compiled with GNAT GPL, and put the source code on the CD, along with 
all the GPL required notification files.  I then sell this to customers. 
  My customers now have the Ada source code, so what?  Unless they're 
knowledgeable Ada programmers, they're hardly likely to find the source 
code itself of any use to them.  While we'd all like Ada to be much more 
popular, the lack of popularity is almost as good (or bad, depending on 
your perspective :-) as having proprietary code, since the majority of 
the IT industry doesn't do Ada.

Yes, a customer has the right to distribute my application under the 
terms of the GPL.  But what they paid for was easy and direct access to 
the latest and greatest version, technical support, and immediate access 
to upgrades.  No one they distribute it to will have any of those 
benefits, and if my app gives my customer a competitive edge, they're 
hardly likely to pass it around.  I'm also free to _request_ that they 
not distribute the app (the GPL does not preclude doing this), and that 
if they choose to distribute anyway it will negatively impact our future 
business relationship.

-- Marc A. Criley
-- McKae Technologies
-- www.mckae.com
-- DTraq - XPath In Ada - XML EZ Out